In 2019, the Financial Action Task Force asked jurisdictions worldwide to adopt its regulatory guidelines for virtual assets. At the V20 conference today, held online, David Lewis—executive secretary and G20 deputy at the organization—gave an overview of how implementation and business response have gone so far. The FATF is an intergovernmental organization tasked with combating money laundering. Its 2019 directives for regulating crypto, which include a controversial section dubbed the “Travel Rule,” are designed to mitigate illicit uses of virtual assets, and to bring the sector into line with traditional banking regulations. Lewis told conference attendees that the majority of …

The United States faces a growing threat of transnational cybercrime, particularly against its financial system. In what may be the largest prosecution of its kind in U.S. history, the U.S. Department of Justice has charged Texas tech billionaire Bob Brockman in a 39-count indictment with evading $2 billion in taxes. The businessman used encrypted devices and code words to conceal his wire fraud, tax fraud and money laundering within a network of offshore entities and bank accounts. As the CEO of Reynolds and Reynolds Co., Brockman contributed 6.4% to the United States’ current annual deficit of $3.1 trillion — more …

The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has announced it will be changing the anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) rules within the financial sector. The announcement stated that FinCen will be seeking public feedback on forthcoming regulatory proposals intended to modernize and strengthen rules governing the reporting and monitoring requirements of financial institutions. The new policies seek to address “the evolving threats of illicit finance, such as money laundering, terrorist financing and related crimes” which suggests that crypto firms and exchanges will be firmly in the sights of the coming regulatory changes. They will also impact the compliance …

In the final decision on a criminal case that began a decade ago, an appellate court has said that the National Security Agency’s phone data collection practices were in fact illegal. They did, however, uphold the convictions in the case. According to the 9th Circuit Court’s Sept. 2 opinion in USA v. Moalin: We conclude that the government may have violated the Fourth Amendment and did violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”) when it collected the telephony metadata of millions of Americans. The court continued to attack the program, writing that the government’s case neglects that “the collection of …

G20 member countries will meet to discuss international cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulation on June 8 and 9 in Fukuoka, Japan. The news was revealed in a report from local news outlet Kyodo on April 4. Per the report, and in accordance with official plans, G20 central bank governors and finance ministers will take part in the meeting. The event will be focused on establishing a framework to combat crypto-enabled money laundering and terrorism financing. Further, according to the Kyodo, it is expected that “it was revealed” on April 4 that the countries are expected to reach an agreement over …

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on September 26 that would establish a crypto task force to combat terrorist use of cryptocurrencies, public records indicate. House Resolution (H.R.) 5036, which represents an amended version of the bill proposed by Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) to the Committee on Financial Services in January, establishes an “Independent Financial Technology Task Force” to fight the illicit use of cryptocurrency. According to public records published on the official online database of the U.S. Congress, the new version of the bill has been passed by the whole House by voice vote. Similar to the …

A group of Russian deputies headed by Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, submitted a draft of federal law on cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) regulations to the State Duma, as reported in an official press release March 20. According to the press release, the documents “On Digital Financial Assets” and “On Alternative Methods of Fundraising (Crowdfunding)” were prepared in accordance with the recent instructions from president Vladimir Putin, stating that cryptocurrency regulations will become law by July 1, 2018. The bill “On Digital Financial Assets” was first introduced on Jan. 25 by the …