On January 18, 2023, the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an order identifying the virtual currency exchange Bitzlato Limited (Bitzlato) as a “primary money laundering concern” in connection with Russian illicit finance. The order, which is the first of its kind, was issued pursuant to Section 9714(a) of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act.
FinCEN
Proposed Rule Lays Out Who Will Have Access to New Corporate Beneficial Ownership Information
By Evan Abrams & Dave Stetson on
Posted in Anti-Money Laundering, FinCEN
On December 16, FinCEN issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) entitled “Beneficial Ownership Information Access and Safeguards, and Use of FinCEN Identifiers for Entities.” The NPRM is intended to implement the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and, in particular, to govern which entities may access corporate beneficial ownership information (BOI) that certain entities will soon be required to report to FinCEN under the CTA. Steptoe previously summarized FinCEN’s final rule on BOI reporting here.…
OFAC and FinCEN Announce Enforcement Actions Against Bittrex
By Sophia Breggia, Jack Hayes, Dave Stetson, Evan Abrams & Jason Weinstein on
On October 11, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced enforcement actions against Bittrex, Inc. (Bittrex), a privately-owned digital asset trading platform based in Bellevue, Washington, for apparent violations of anti-money laundering (AML) laws and of multiple sanctions programs. A settlement of over $24 million was announced by OFAC and a $29 million fine was announced by FinCEN. FinCEN will credit payment of the OFAC settlement amount toward Bittrex’s potential liability with FinCEN, meaning Bittrex will pay just over $29 million in total. Joint enforcement action between OFAC and FinCEN is uncommon—the settlements mark the first instance of parallel enforcement actions by OFAC and FinCEN in the digital asset sector.
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