Strengthening Compliance: Lessons From the OCC's Consent Order With Patriot Bank — Payments Pros – The Payments Law Podcast
Recent Developments in Anti-Money Laundering - The Consumer Finance Podcast
Investment Management Update – Exit Strategies
On January 15, 2025, BitMEX, a Seychelles-registered crypto exchange, was fined $100 million in connection with a previously entered guilty plea to criminal violations of US anti-money laundering (AML) laws. The penalty...more
The settlement is the latest example of the agency’s enhanced criminal enforcement of money transmitting business and international money-laundering laws. The recent settlement is significant both in terms of its amount...more
The Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, also known as the “BSA,” enacted in 1970, established requirements for record-keeping and reporting by banks and other financial institutions. The BSA is designed to, among...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) has issued its Year in Review for FY 2023 (“YIR”). It consists of five pages of infographics. According to FinCEN’s press release...more
Last week, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment against global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and two of its founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, for allegedly conspiring...more
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has been very active in the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) / Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) space, as reflected by a recent series of individual prosecutions and corporate non-prosecution agreements...more
The October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas have re-focused U.S. government efforts to identify and counter funding streams for Hamas and terrorist activity in general – including, in particular, through the use of...more
As the world now knows, Binance Holdings Limited, doing business as Binance.com (“Binance” or the “Company”), has entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”)....more
On October 19, FinCEN announced its determination that transactions with foreign operating crypto-mixers, a service that obfuscates the source and destination of transactions on a public blockchain, are of “Primary Money...more
As reported in more detail on our Regulatory Oversight blog, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Examinations recently released its 2024 Examination Priorities report. The report underscores the SEC’s intent...more
On September 8, 2023, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) released an alert regarding a notorious virtual currency scam called “pig butchering,” because, unfortunately, it resembles the “fattening a hog before...more
On February 7, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Examinations (EXAMs) announced its 2023 Examination Priorities (the “Priorities”), which highlight areas it expects to target in 2023...more
Happy New Year! While the holidays hopefully provided a chance to rest and recharge, things have not slowed down in the world of digital asset enforcement. We see a growing dedication of resources by government law...more
New York’s Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) recently announced a $100 million settlement with Coinbase, Inc., one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, for Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (“BSA/AML”)...more
On 22 September 2022, the U.K. government introduced the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2022. The new bill is currently navigating its way through the U.K. Parliament and is likely to receive royal assent in...more
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) settled enforcement actions with Washington state-based Bittrex. In the two settlements, Bittrex...more
On October 11, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced settlements for approximately $24 million and $29 million,...more
We’ve waited over half a year for it and it’s finally here but what does the second Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill of 2022 (the “Bill”) mean for businesses in and outside the regulated sector? The Bill’s...more
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) announced on October 11 simultaneous settlements with Bittrex, Inc. (“Bittrex”), a virtual currency exchange and hosted...more
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced yesterday that they had reached settlements for over $24 million and $29 million,...more
Greetings, and thank you for taking a look at our new monthly crypto enforcement newsletter. Our goal is to share five topics each month that we believe are of significance in the world of crypto enforcement—particularly as...more
Ankura's Nova O sits down with Mark McGrath, Ayana Murphy, and Elif Cinar to discuss the current anti-money laundering (AML) landscape in the latest Q&A with our Ankura experts. Learn more about responding to the increased...more
The legal saga involving the civil and criminal cases against the entity and former individual owners of the Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, or BitMEX—a large and well-known online trading platform dealing in futures contracts...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) recently issued an advisory urging financial institutions (including certain cryptocurrency businesses) to implement controls to help detect proceeds of foreign public...more
Cryptocurrency's reputation for enabling transactions outside of the traditional financial ecosystem has prompted concerns that it may serve as a tool for Russian actors to evade recently promulgated sanctions against the...more