Stablecoins Now Commonly Used in Illicit Finance, FATF Warns
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said that stablecoins are now commonly used in money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing schemes, and warned that peer-to-peer transfers via unhosted wallets represent a key vulnerability for the crypto ecosystem.
Tether Has Frozen Billions of Dollars in Crypto Linked to Illicit Activity
Stablecoin issuer Tether said it has frozen about $4.2 billion of its USDT tokens over links to “illicit activity,” with most of the freezes occurring in the past three years, as authorities worldwide intensify efforts to curb crypto-related crime.
FinCEN Levies Sec. 311 Against Switzerland’s MBaer Bank
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on Thursday proposed a Section 311 “special measure” that, if finalized, would cut MBaer Merchant Bank AG off from the American financial system.
Binance Fired Staff Who Uncovered Banned Iranian Transactions, NYT Confirms
Binance internal investigators found last year that about $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency flowed from two accounts on the exchange to Iranian entities with links to terrorist groups, raising potential violations of global sanctions.
Niger Wants to Sell 1,000 Tons of Uranium. ISIS Wants to Seize It
A shipment of about 1,000 tons of uranium moved out of northern Niger in recent months and is now stranded at a military airbase in the capital, Niamey, where it faces heightened security risks after an attack by Islamic State militants.
Russia’s Wagner Group is Finding New Recruits to Conduct Attacks in Europe
Recruiters and propagandists who previously worked for Russia’s Wagner Group have become a key channel for Kremlin-directed sabotage operations in Europe, the Financial Times reported.
Bipartisan Bill Would Make Russian Mercenaries Foreign Terrorists
A bipartisan coalition of U.S. House lawmakers has introduced legislation that would order the State Department to add Russian mercenary groups to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).
U.S. Targets Hezbollah Ties to Gold Exchange and Financiers
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a Lebanon-based gold exchange company and a network of individuals behind a procurement and commodities shipping scheme purportedly tied to Hezbollah.
MONEYVAL Outlines Challenges in Curtailing Criminal Misuse of Crypto
The Council of Europe’s anti-money-laundering body on Tuesday published a new report on how criminals exploit crypto-assets to launder illicit proceeds, fund terrorism, and evade sanctions.
Bill Would Take on Criminals Seeking to Circumvent AML Laws
Two U.S. senators reintroduced a bipartisan bill that would subject informal-value transfers and blank checks to anti-financial crime laws and strengthen the hand of prosecutors pursuing money-laundering charges.