As Bitcoin Re-takes $10,000: "Global money-laundering watchdog launches crackdown on cryptocurrencies"
From Reuters:
Cryptocurrency firms will be subjected to rules to prevent the abuse of
digital coins such as bitcoin for money laundering, a global watchdog
said on Friday, the first worldwide regulatory attempt to constrain the
rapidly growing sector.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF), set up 30 years ago to tackle
money laundering, told countries to tighten oversight of cryptocurrency
exchanges to stop digital coins being used to launder cash.
The
move by FATF, which groups countries from the United States to China and
bodies such as the European Commission, reflects growing concern among
international law enforcement agencies that cryptocurrencies are being
used to launder the proceeds of crime.
Countries will be
compelled to register and supervise cryptocurrency-related firms such as
exchanges and custodians, which will have to carry out detailed checks
on customers and report suspicious transactions, FATF said in a
statement.
“This will enable the emerging FinTech sector to stay
one-step ahead of rogue regimes and sympathizers of illicit causes
searching for avenues to raise and transfer funds without detection,”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a FATF meeting in Florida,
according to remarks posted on the U.S Treasury website.
Simon Riondet, head of financial intelligence at Europol, the European
police agency that coordinates cross-border investigations, told Reuters
he saw a growing use of cryptocurrencies in laundering criminal money.
“This
is a risk we all face worldwide,” FATF President Marshall Billingslea
told Reuters. “Nations need to move forward rapidly. This is an urgent
issue.”
Europol broke up a Spanish drugs cartel this year that
laundered cash using two crypto ATMs, machines that issue
cryptocurrencies for cash.
Riondet said cryptocurrencies were
used to transfer money across borders, as well as to break down large
criminal money transfers into smaller amounts that are harder to detect.
“We also have some investigation on the dark web in which the payments
are made in cryptocurrencies, sometimes in bitcoin, and they are
switching it to more anonymized cryptocurrencies,” he said....
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