FINCast Ep. 19 - The DPRK Sanctions Program
On March 21, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) officially lifted sanctions on Tornado Cash, the decentralized cryptocurrency mixer it had blacklisted in August 2022....more
On February 21, 2025, Bybit, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, suffered a cyberattack resulting in the theft of approximately $1.5 billion in Ethereum tokens. This attack marked a new pinnacle in the...more
On November 26, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) against a decentralized cryptocurrency mixing service (a...more
On November 26, 2024, the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion in Van Loon v. Department of the Treasury that invalidated economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) on...more
U.S. government agencies continue to take action against cryptocurrency mixing services that enable cybercriminals to obfuscate the trail of stolen proceeds on public blockchains stemming from illicit cyber activity. On...more
The U.S. authorities are increasingly taking actions against big-name crypto mixers for potential violations of sanctions regulations. On November 29, 2023, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control...more
In two prior posts, this blog tracked the ongoing intrigue of how the various branches of the United States government interact with blockchain and cryptocurrency organizations. We discussed the Wyoming law allowing...more
CryptoLink is a compilation of news stories published by outside organizations. Akin aggregates these stories, but the information contained in them does not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of the firm. Akin's...more
Executive Summary - The North Korean threat to the crypto ecosystem is the highest form of immediate risk to the crypto-economy driven by a regime that seeks to profit from its misuse to reinforce its regime and fuel all its...more
An inherent aspect of any new technology is that it doesn’t take long for bad actors to figure out how it can be weaponized for nefarious purposes. Cyber-related technologies represent an increasingly dangerous area of risk...more
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Tornado Cash. As a result, all property and interests in property of Tornado Cash that is in the United States or in the...more
In late December 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). The new law creates a rebuttable presumption that any goods created in whole or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous...more
ACI’s Annual Flagship Conference on Economic Sanctions Enforcement and Compliance is widely regarded as the premier conference designed for those working in global sanctions compliance, internal audits and investigations,...more
In the past, sanctioned jurisdictions like Venezuela have embraced virtual currency as a way to bypass channels that involve U.S. dollars, blunting the impact of U.S. economic sanctions policies aimed at isolating those...more
ANTICORRUPTION DEVELOPMENTS – Canadian Mining Company Settles with SEC over FCPA Charges – On March 26, Kinross Gold Corporation settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its alleged failure to...more
This issue of Skadden’s semiannual Cross-Border Investigations Update takes a close look at recent cases, regulatory activity and other key developments, including new U.K. reporting obligations for sanctions violations,...more