Reported by: Steve Mollman FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should be in custody by now, as far as Brian Armstrong is concerned. The CoinbaseCEO said this week it’s “baffling to me why he’s not in custody already.” “The DOJ or somebody should be able to make—just based on his public statements, I think there’s a very open […]
Reported by: Vincent Ryan The Securities and Exchange Commission received 12,322 whistleblower tips in fiscal year 2022 — the most ever and a slight increase from 2021, according to its annual report to Congress. But allegations of cryptocurrency fraud continue to grow, from 289 in 2019, to 369 in 2020, 762 in 2021, and 1,718 in 2022. […]
Reported by: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Texas According to court documents unsealed today, 21 individuals have been charged for their roles in transnational money laundering networks, including those that laundered millions of dollars stolen from United States fraud victims through romance scams, business email compromises, technical support schemes, and other fraud schemes. U.S. […]
Reported by: Turner Wright A blockchain firm that partnered with the Ukrainian government to launch a donation website amid the country’s war with Russia has pushed back against online rumors and conspiracy theories that its platform was used for politically motivated money laundering. Ukrainian government officials partnered with Everstake, Kuna and the now infamous crypto […]
Reported by: SEBASTIAN SINCLAIR&DAVID CANELLIS The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has long been a thorn in the side of the crypto ecosystem — and chairman Gary Gensler represents the very tip. Gensler’s SEC has been more prolific in its crypto cases this year. In January, Gensler directed staff to figure out how to get “these […]
Reported by: Gillian Tett This month might not seem the perfect moment for an institution such as Goldman Sachs to be championing the benefits of “blockchain” or “tokenisation”. After all, these buzz words first shot to fame in the cryptocurrency sector, which has lost two-thirds of its value during the past year. And the recent implosion […]
Reported by: Tim Craig, Drew Harwell and Nitasha Tiku Before Sam Bankman-Fried’s $16 billion empire imploded, Margaux Avedisian remembers thinking there was something unsettling about the cryptocurrency wunderkind. Bankman-Fried had become a legend by pushing an image of monkish aloofness, vowing to forsake the allures of his extraordinary wealth — sleeping on beanbag chairs, driving […]
Reported by: AYSHA BAGCHI The Internal Revenue Service has signaled that a wave of tax prosecutions involving cryptocurrency is coming. Its Criminal Investigations division is building hundreds of cryptocurrency cases, with about half of those investigations focused specifically on tax crimes, according to division Chief Jim Lee. Others target money laundering, he said. Lee made […]
Reported by: U.S. Department of Justice Two Estonian citizens were arrested in Tallinn, Estonia, yesterday on an 18-count indictment for their alleged involvement in a $575 million cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering conspiracy. The indictment was returned by a grand jury in the Western District of Washington on Oct. 27 and unsealed today. According to […]
Reported by: Gwinny Kongphet The Regulated Liability Network, a proof-of-concept digital currency network, was launched on Tuesday according to a collection of banking organizations that includes HBSC, Mastercard, and Wells Fargo (RLN). The New York Innovation Center (NYIC), a division of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is thrilled to be collaborating with the […]
Financial Crime News Briefs 