The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has proposed a rule to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism that would add significant compliance requirements for financial...more
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued a final rule (the Access Rule) regarding access to and use of beneficial ownership information (BOI) maintained by FinCEN....more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (the “Proposed Rule”) in late January seeking public comment on a proposed pilot program that would expand financial institutions’...more
Two recent guilty pleas involving a cryptocurrency exchange serve as a reminder to all money services businesses (“MSBs”)—including those ostensibly located outside the United States but that conduct business there—of the...more
3/4/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BitMEX ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
FinCEN ,
Guilty Pleas ,
Know Your Customers ,
Money Services Business ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
Two recent guilty pleas involving a cryptocurrency exchange serve as a reminder to all money services businesses (“MSBs”)—including those ostensibly located outside the United States but that conduct business there—of the...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
8/20/2021
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BitMEX ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
FinTech ,
Popular ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Virtual Currency
On January 1, 2021, Congress enacted a broad range of anti-money laundering (“AML”) reforms within the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (the “AML Act”), as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021...more
2/4/2021
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Beneficial Owner ,
BSA/AML ,
Corruption ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
Money Laundering ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes
Anti-money laundering authorities are proposing a significant revision to the federal AML regulatory scheme with the aim of making it more effective while providing greater clarity to covered institutions. ...more
10/9/2020
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Anti-Corruption ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Corruption ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Transactions ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
Public Comment ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Risk Assessment ,
White Collar Crimes
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and federal banking regulators recently issued a Joint Statement intended to clarify the due diligence obligations of banks under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regarding...more
9/17/2020
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) ,
FFIEC ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinCEN ,
Joint Statements ,
Politically Exposed Person (PEPs) ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk-Based Approaches
I. Background -
Sweden’s financial supervisory authority (“SFSA”) recently fined Swedbank AB a record 4 billion Swedish kronor (approximately $386 million) for deficiencies in its anti-money laundering (“AML”) processes...more
4/19/2020
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Beneficial Owner ,
BSA/AML ,
Corruption ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
Know Your Customers ,
Money Laundering ,
Sweden ,
White Collar Crimes
On March 4, 2020, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Treasury Department (“FinCEN”) assessed a civil monetary penalty of $450,000 against Michael LaFontaine, the former Chief Operational Risk Officer and...more
A recent federal criminal action shows the depth of the U.S. government’s concern about the use of cryptocurrency (or virtual currency) to violate economic sanctions laws and the lengths to which it will go to charge such...more
1/24/2020
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bitcoin Mining ,
BSA/AML ,
CFTC ,
Corruption ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Currency Exchange ,
Digital Currency ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Financial Transactions ,
FinCEN ,
Geo-Blocking ,
Jurisdiction ,
Money Laundering ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Risk Management ,
Sanction Violations ,
SDN List ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Strict Compliance ,
Strict Liability ,
Virtual Currency