U.S. Extradites Suspected ‘Dark Bank’ Launderer to France
A 42-year-old American citizen suspected by French investigators of leading a vast international money laundering network known as “Dark Bank” has been extradited from the United States to France, Le Monde reported.
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.
Austria Bars KuCoin from Taking on New Business Amid Compliance Staff Shortages
Austria’s financial regulator has ordered KuCoin’s European arm to stop taking on new business after the crypto exchange lost key compliance staff in the months following the firm getting a green light to operate under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regime.
ECB Questions Banks on their AI Risk Exposure
The European Central Bank has stepped up its scrutiny of how exposed euro-area lenders are to the fast-growing artificial intelligence industry, reflecting concerns that banks may be building credit risk in hard-to-track ways and that AI could reshape parts of the financial sector.
Pardoned and Poolside: Zhao Returns to U.S. for Crypto Summit
Changpeng Zhao, the founder of crypto exchange Binance who was pardoned by President Trump in October, returned to the U.S. this week and attended a Trump-backed crypto conference alongside the president’s sons and senior administration officials.
U.S. Oversight of MSBs is Weakest in Years as Crypto Usage Surges
Cryptocurrency usage is surging in the United States. You wouldn’t know that from the number of federal examiners tasked with supervising the industry for anti-money-laundering (AML) compliance though.
Binance Said to Fire Staff Who Found Iran Moved $1bn Through Exchange
Binance fired members of its internal compliance investigations team after they raised concerns that Iran-linked entities may have moved more than $1 billion through the crypto exchange, according to new reporting by Fortune.
How Dirty Crypto Gets Cleaned in a Gig Economy
Drug cartels and other criminal groups are increasingly using cryptocurrencies and a growing “gig” workforce of freelance brokers and couriers to launder cash and evade law enforcement, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.
EU May Ban Crypto Payments Tied to Russia, Restrict Exports for Kyrgyzstan
The European Commission has proposed a blanket ban on cryptocurrency transactions linked to Russia and new trade restrictions on Kyrgyzstan in an effort to close loopholes used by Moscow to fund its war in Ukraine.
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.