Category: ICO

DOJ Disputes Roman Storm’s Characterization of Tornado Cash Operations in New Filing

The DOJ charged Storm, alongside fellow developer Roman Semenov, with conspiring to commit money laundering, conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitter and conspiring to violate sanctions law by creating and operating Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing service designed to anonymize transactions. North Korea’s Lazarus Group and other criminal entities have laundered funds through Tornado Cash, U.S. authorities have alleged. Source

Custodia Bank Appeals Court Loss in Fed Membership Lawsuit

“Unless Federal Reserve Banks possess discretion to deny or reject a master account application, state chartering laws would be the only layer of insulation for the U.S. financial system,” Judge Scott Skavdahl wrote last month. “And in that scenario, one can readily foresee a ‘race to the bottom’ among states and politicians to attract business by reducing state chartering burdens through lax legislation, allowing minimally regulated institutions to gain ready access to the central bank’s balances and Federal Reserve services.” Source

Warren Flags Crypto Ties to Child Sexual Abuse in Letter to U.S. DOJ, Homeland Security

Cryptocurrency has become “the payment of choice for perpetrators of child sexual abuse and exploitation,” the lawmakers noted, citing a February FinCEN Trend Analysis from transactions in 2020 and 2021 and a Chainalysis report from this past January. “Existing anti-money laundering rules and law enforcement methods face challenges in effectively detecting and preventing these crimes – and we seek to ensure that Congress and the administration are doing their part to address these challenges.” Source

Spreading the Benefits of the Gig Economy

Companies like Uber and Airbnb pioneered the operator economy when they started delivering valuable services using crowdsourced infrastructure and labor. In the process, they proved that this relatively decentralized business model could compete with, and even outperform, traditional businesses. Today, the United States is home to more operating platforms than anywhere in the world, with apps for food delivery, haircuts, babysitters, car sharing, and many more. The U.S. operator economy has produced a stable of unicorns and is on track to be valued in the trillions by 2031. In a…

European Parliament Adopts Anti-Money Laundering Rules Package That Will Also Regulate Crypto

The new measures also seek to give people or entities with “legitimate interest,” including journalists, media professionals, civil society organizations and other competent authorities, “immediate, unfiltered, direct and free access to beneficial ownership information held in national registries and interconnected at EU level.” Beneficial ownership information refers to identifying information about entities or people that own or control companies. Source