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
Key Takeaways - - The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s recently issued notice, which addresses regulations and increased rates of fraud surrounding convertible virtual currency kiosks, carries significant implications...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
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
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
With the imposition of sweeping new sanctions on Russia and Belarus following the invasion of Ukraine, federal financial regulators are issuing warnings about efforts to evade these actions. On Monday, March 7, 2022, the...more
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) recently issued a public version of a more detailed and confidential report previously sent to Congress summarizing the GAO’s review of the use of virtual currencies to...more
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released detailed sanctions compliance guidance for the virtual currency industry (the Guidance). The Guidance provides an overview of OFAC sanctions requirements and lists several best...more
Government Alleges Systemic and Deliberate AML Failures - Filings Describe Tools for CVC Exchanges to Use for Customer Due Diligence and Transaction Monitoring - The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) and...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reached one of the largest-ever resolutions with a cryptocurrency exchange on August 10, 2021. BitMEX is virtual currency...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on June 30, 2021, issued national priorities for anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) policy (the Priorities), as required by the...more
In this Issue. In one of its first acts after being installed on January 20, the Biden Administration issued a regulatory freeze on new agency rules that have been adopted but are not yet effective; in one of its final acts...more
The prevalence, sophistication, and severity of ransomware attacks have increased anti-money laundering risks faced by financial institutions both as targets of ransomware attacks and as potential intermediaries in...more
Financial institutions with anti-money laundering responsibilities under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) take note: there’s a new sheriff in town. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently finished its fiscal year with...more
FinCEN Director Ken Blanco addressed this year’s Consensus Blockchain Conference on May 13, 2020. In a set of prepared remarks, Blanco recognized the unprecedented challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has created for...more
U.S. Developments - U.S. Federal Regulatory Developments - CFTC, FinCEN, and SEC Leaders Release a Join Statement on Digital Assets - On October 11, 2019, the heads of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”),...more
As underscored in a recent speech by the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), compliance officers should ensure that their anti-money laundering (“AML”) programs are current with FinCEN’s...more
FinCEN defines a Money Service Business (MSB) as any person DOING BUSINESS, whether or not on a regular basis or as an organized business concern, in one or more of the following capacities...more
The Situation: The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN") released interpretive guidance concerning the application of the Bank Secrecy Act ("BSA") and the anti-money laundering ("AML") regulations to certain...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is the U.S. Treasury Department bureau charged with monitoring financial transactions in order to combat domestic and international money laundering, terrorist financing and...more
As we just blogged, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) Director Kenneth Blanco recently touted the value of Suspicious Activity Reports (“SARs”) in the context of discussing anti-money laundering (“AML”)...more
Address Emphasizes Role of SARs in Fighting Illegal Activity, Including Drug Dealing Fueling the Opioid Crisis - Kenneth Blanco, the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), discussed last week...more