The Securities and Exchange Commission announced yesterday that its new Cyber Unit obtained an emergency asset freeze to halt a “fast-moving” Initial Coin Offering (ICO) fraud that raised up to $15 million from thousands of...more
The United States Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) launched the “FinCEN Exchange” program today in order to enhance information sharing with financial institutions and to strengthen...more
Earlier this week Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced that a sushi restaurant outside Detroit has been ordered to pay nearly $1 million in restitution and to serve a five-year sentence of probation for...more
In the midst of the tax reform debate currently embroiling Congress, Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has introduced an amendment seeking to repeal the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), an anti-tax evasion law enacted...more
The Internal Revenue Service has prevailed in its long-running dispute with Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based Bitcoin exchange, with a federal judge ordering Coinbase to comply with a “John Doe” summons seeking customer...more
Today the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced that it had fined a California card club, Artichoke Joe’s Casino, $8 million for numerous willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act...more
Tomorrow morning (November 17) the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is set to release publicly the first set of comprehensive data from the recent “Paradise Papers” leak. The initial data will...more
Earlier this week, a federal grand jury in Brooklyn returned an indictment criminally charging a self-described “day trader” with various offenses in connection with an alleged computer hacking scheme involving more than 50...more
Today the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Kenneth A. Blanco as Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau in Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. The leading...more
On Friday, November 3, 2017, the IRS Large Business and International division (LB&I) announced the identification and selection of 11 additional compliance campaigns. In January 2017, LB&I unveiled its first 13 campaigns to...more
In its recently-published 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA), the Drug Enforcement Administration reports that drug trafficking organizations are turning to Bitcoin and other virtual currencies to enable easy...more
With tax reform a hot topic in Washington, key Republican lawmakers in Congress are considering a major change to the U.S. tax system: eliminating citizenship-based taxation and moving to a residence-based system, according...more
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced today that California wildfire victims in affected areas of California have until January 31, 2018, to file their Report of Foreign Bank and...more
In a report to the President recommending actions to eliminate or mitigate burdens imposed on taxpayers by eight specific tax regulations, the Treasury Department indicated that it is considering possible reforms of...more
The Internal Revenue Service has once again delayed the start date for implementation of a new law authorizing the State Department to revoke the passports of taxpayers with sizeable tax debts. According to an IRS web site...more
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today updated two previous notices regarding FBAR-filing relief to victims of the recent hurricanes. Extension filers have until January 31, 2018 to...more
Earlier this year we wrote about the Justice Department’s continuing efforts to combat fraud in the EB-5 immigrant visa program, with the filing of several federal lawsuits seeking the forfeiture of nine real properties...more
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued an advisory to alert financial institutions of widespread public corruption in Venezuela and the methods Venezuelan senior political figures...more
BNA’s Michael J. Bologna and Paul Shukovsky have written a comprehensive article about a pervasive problem facing state tax auditors: the use by restaurants and other cash-intensive businesses of electronic revenue...more
The Internal Revenue Service has issued a reminder to foreign financial institutions to renew their Foreign Financial Institution (FFI) agreement if required. These FFIs have until October 24, 2017 to complete their renewal....more
Two members of Congress have introduced a bill that would exempt from income tax transactions under $600 conducted using Bitcoin or other digital currencies. Currently, the Internal Revenue Service treats digital currencies...more
We previously reported that the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) had granted FBAR filing relief to the victims of Hurricane Harvey. FinCEN announced today that Hurricane Irma victims in...more
This article is Part II of a series in which we address the U.S. government’s attempts to combat money laundering in real estate transactions....more
This article is Part I of a series in which we address the U.S. government’s attempts to combat money laundering in real estate transactions.
This week the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network...more
Yesterday the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced the issuance of revised Geographic Targeting Orders (GTOs) that require U.S. title insurance companies to identify the natural persons behind shell...more