FATF to finalize interpretation of virtual assets, digital currency exchanges and ICOs to require they be FIU-registered and supervised for AML compliance

Tweet In furtherance of the US approach to responsible innovation, the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF“)’s private sector consultation in Vienna two weeks ago, will help drive changes to FATF Recommendation 15 to bring digital currencies, ICOs, and digital currency exchanges more fully into the AML requirements in June 2019. The Vienna change will take […]

Canadian Member of Parliament Introduces Bill to Allow for Crypto Capital Gains Donations to Charities

Tweet Canadian Parliamentarian Dan Albas, has introduced Bill C-452 in Parliament today which would allow holders of cryptocurrency to make charitable donations in crypto to Canadian charities and get a tax credit for their donations. The short but powerful amendment to the Income Tax Act, amends §38(a.1) to include crypto as an approved category for the […]

Spanish police seize €9 million in Bitcoin as part of money laundering Bitcoin ATM ring

Tweet The Spanish Guardia Civil has arrested eight people and seized over €9 million, luxury cars, cannabis plants and jewellery in connection with an alleged money laundering operation in Spain that involved the use of Bitcoin ATMs and digital currency exchanges to launder proceeds of crime and avoid the filing of suspicious transaction reports. According […]

Australian police uncover Bitcoin-related alleged international drug traffickers

Tweet Two Bitcoin-related alleged drug traffickers living large  In the last few months, the Australian Federal Police have arrested two well-known Bitcoin guys suspected of leading secret lives as international drug traffickers. Both alleged to the public that they had real jobs, one operating a digital currency exchange and the other an IT business, but […]

Iran confirms supporting an ICO and several Blockchain projects

Tweet On Tuesday, Iranian officials spoke to the Iranian media and confirmed that a government organization – Iran Telecommunication Research Center – has four Blockchain projects in progress that have looked at using Blockchain for policy making, threat management and business use cases for Iran. Further, they announced that a project at Sharif University, funded […]

China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate comments on Blockchain-based evidence for Court purposes

Tweet China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the highest national legal supervisory body in China (which reports to the National People’s Congress), published a commentary by a learned legal scholar on its official website on the use of Blockchain for Court evidentiary purposes yesterday, noting that for it to grow as a source of reliable evidence in […]

US identifies Canada as major money laundering country, and notes concern over its low prosecution rate

Tweet Canada once again a Major Money Laundering country The 2019 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) published on Friday by the U.S. Department of State identifies Canada once again as a major money laundering country along with a host of risky countries for financial crime. A major money laundering country is one whose banks […]

A guy says he gave $3M of Bitcoin to a stranger to sell in Hong Kong and, you guessed it, says he never saw it again

Tweet Updated December 26, 2019 – On November 1, 2019, the High Court of Hong Kong reversed its decision and agreed to order a mareva injunction sought by Nico Constantijn Samara against CitiBank and Gatecoin digital currency exchange. This is one of those stories that could only happen in the Bitcoin world. In June 2017, […]

World’s first bi-national government issued digital currency launched in Middle East

Tweet Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates announced yesterday in Abu Dhabi that they have created and launched a joint new bi-national digital currency. The name of the coin has not been released, not the type, not the amount issued, nor its price per coin. According to the governments of both nations, the new […]

US lawmakers introduce bills to prevent Iran from developing an ICO

Tweet Two US lawmakers introduced bills to prevent Iran from being able to grow its planned government issued sovereign initial coin offering, or its own digital currency. Both bills add criminal liability to persons, financial institutions, correspondent banks and digital currency exchanges that facilitate transactions involving an Iranian digital currency. The Iranian government appears to […]