Ropes & Gray Discusses Executive Order Limiting Data Transfers to China and Other Nations

By Ama A. Adams, Fran Faircloth, Edward R. McNicholas, Christine Moundas and David Peloquin April 9, 2024 by renholding

On February 28, 2024, President Biden announced an Executive Order (“EO”) directing the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to promulgate regulations that restrict or prohibit transactions involving certain bulk sensitive personal data or United States Government-related data and countries of concern …

Ropes & Gray Discusses FinCEN Proposal to Extend Anti-Money Laundering Requirements

By Ama A. Adams, Brendan C. Hanifin and Kurt Fowler March 29, 2024 by renholding

On February 13, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), within the U.S. Treasury Department, issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Proposed Rule”) that would extend certain anti-money laundering program requirements to:

investment advisers registered (“RIAs”) with the Securities and Exchange

…

Kirkland & Ellis Discusses FinCEN Proposal to Increase Anti-Money Laundering Requirements for Investment Advisers

By Norm Champ P.C. Scott A. Moehrke, P.C. Josh Westerholm, P.C. and Nick Niles February 27, 2024 by renholding

On February 13, the U.S. Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) proposed¹ (the “Proposed Rule”) to apply affirmative anti-money laundering and countering-the-financing-of-terrorism (“AML/CFT”) program obligations as prescribed by the Bank Secrecy Act (the “BSA…

Treasury Should Keep Global Anti-Corruption Efforts in Mind When Drafting Whistleblower Regs

By Stephen M. Kohn July 31, 2023 by renholding

The U.S. Treasury Department and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) are in the midst of drafting regulations to implement the anti-money laundering (AML) whistleblower program. The program, established in 2021 by the AML Act of 2020 and reformed in …

Skadden Discusses First OFAC and FinCEN Parallel Enforcement Actions on Virtual Currency

By Alessio Evangelista, Eytan J. Fisch, Khalil N. Maalouf, Javier A. Urbina and Michael A. Darling November 23, 2022 by renholding

On October 11, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced settlements for approximately $24 million and $29 million, respectively, with virtual currency exchange Bittrex, Inc. (Bittrex). …

Skadden Discusses Final FinCEN Rule on Beneficial Ownership Reporting

By Jamie L. Boucher, Alessio Evangelista, Eytan J. Fisch, Greg Seidner and Javier A. Urbina November 7, 2022 by renholding

On September 29, 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a long-awaited final rule implementing the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The final rule adopted much of FinCEN’s December …

The Law and Economics of Blacklisting

By Nizan Geslevich Packin and Hadar Y. Jabotinsky September 2, 2022 by renholding

The crackdown on Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing service, continues a recent trend of regulators using blacklisting as a key enforcement tool. Tornado Cash was blacklisted by the Treasury Department for allegedly helping to launder over $7 billion in …

Congress Should Grant the SEC Oversight of Digital Asset Spot Markets

By Lee Reiners April 21, 2022 by renholding

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has classified Bitcoin and Ether – and by extension other cryptocurrencies that are similarly structured – as commodities (courts have also upheld this classification). While the CFTC regulates commodity derivatives, they do not regulate …

Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses FinCEN Update of Ransomware Advisory

By Sullivan & Cromwell November 16, 2021 by renholding

On November 8, 2021, the United States Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued an updated version of its Advisory on Ransomware and the Use of the Financial System to Facilitate Ransom Payments, originally issued in the …

Davis Polk Discusses FinCEN, CFTC Penalties on Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange

By Robert Cohen, Jai Massari, Daniel Stipano, Zachary Zweihorn and Kendall Howell August 19, 2021 by renholding

The CFTC and FinCEN recently announced a settlement with BitMEX for $100 million to resolve an enforcement action related to the exchange’s failure to register as a futures commission merchant and failure to establish a BSA/AML compliance program.

The Order

…

O’Melveny & Myers Discusses the Legal Challenges of NFTs

By Heather J. Meeker, Laurel Loomis Rimon, Eric Sibbitt and Braddock Stevenson April 14, 2021 by Nisha Chandra

Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, are big news these days. After an NFT for a piece of digital art by the artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) sold for $69 million in March 2021―making it the third-most expensive artwork by a living …

Toward a Better Coordinated Regulatory Response to Cryptoassets

By Carol Goforth March 10, 2021 by renholding

On Monday, January 8, 2021, Tesla announced in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin.[1] This purchase coincided with a dramatic increase in the price of the cryptoasset, which …

Latham & Watkins Looks Back at Digital Asset Regulation in 2020

By Stephen P. Wink, Todd Beauchamp, Yvette D. Valdez, Eric S. Volkman, Adam Bruce Fovent and Deric Behar February 5, 2021 by renholding

Last year, Latham & Watkins sounded a hopeful note that 2020 would provide a clearer vision than 2019 for the regulation of digital assets in the US. In the wake of the emergence of COVID-19, priorities changed, along with forecasts …

Latham & Watkins Discusses Digital Asset Regulations of 2020

By Stephen P. Wink, Todd Beauchamp, Yvette D. Valdez, Eric Volkman, Adam Bruce Fovent and Deric Behar January 29, 2021 by Nisha Chandra

The Cost of Doing Business: Corporate Crime and Punishment Post-Crisis

By Dorothy S. Lund and Natasha Sarin March 18, 2020 by renholding

For many years, law and economics scholars, as well as politicians and regulators, have debated whether corporate criminal enforcement deters too much beneficial corporate activity or lets corporate criminals off too easily. This debate has recently grown more polarized: On …

SEC, CFTC, and FinCEN Leaders Issue Statement on Digital Asset Activities

By Heath Tarbert, Kenneth A. Blanco and Jay Clayton October 14, 2019 by renholding

The leaders of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Agencies”) today issued the following joint statement to remind persons engaged in activities involving digital assets of their

…

Debevoise Discusses Guidance on Applying Bank Secrecy Act Framework to Convertible Virtual Currency

By Satish M. Kini and Byungkwon Lim June 5, 2019 by renholding

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued interpretive guidance on May 9, 2019 explaining how the agency intends to apply its existing regulatory framework to companies offering common types of convertible virtual currency (“CVC”) products and services (the “CVC Guidance”).…

Ballard Spahr Discusses SEC Case Against Clearing Broker Under Bank Secrecy Act

By Brad Gershel January 7, 2019 by renholding

On December 11, Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York granted, in part, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) motion for summary judgement in its action against Alpine Securities, Inc. (“Alpine”), finding that the clearing broker …

Arnold & Porter Discusses Easing of FinCEN Rules on Identifying Beneficial Owners of Accounts

By Richard M. Alexander, David F. Freeman, Jr., Michael A. Mancusi, Brian C. McCormally and Kevin M. Toomey September 12, 2018 by renholding

On September 7, 2018, after considerable industry feedback and two issuances of temporary relief, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued permanent relief to the banking industry from the requirement to collect beneficial ownership information on certain accounts that automatically …

Arnold & Porter Discusses Regulators’ Clamp-Down on ICOs, Virtual Currencies, and Blockchain Firms

By Andrew Joseph Shipe, Lawton M. Camp, Michael D. Trager, Christopher L. Allen and Anthony Raglani April 30, 2018 by renholding

If there was ever a regulatory grace period for virtual currencies and blockchain technology, it is officially over. Five federal regulators—The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the US Treasury Department (FinCEN), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures …

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