The Treasury and Department of Justice are acting on Crypto exchange insider tips to pursue massive money laundering schemes allowing major drug cartels to hide their skyrocketing profits in crypto assets. In early 2021, Congress passed the Anti-Money Laundering act of 2020 https://www.whistleblowers.gov/statutes/amla which created a new whistleblower program to be administered by the Department of Treasury. It covers violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and entities in the money services business. Most all businesses that sell trade or transmit cryptocurrencies are considered money services businesses. If the business is located outside the United States, it is still considered an MSB if it has customers in the U.S. This includes cryptocurrency exchanges. Whistleblowers, including employees advisors to such exchanges, are often privy to information about significant money laundering activities and they can report an MSB that fails to take required steps to implement an internal Anti Money Laundering program designed to prevent money laundering. Under this program, the identity of whistleblowers in this program is kept confidential. Persons living inside or outside the United States may be a whistleblower under this program if they have unique and detailed information about such money laundering.
FOR WHISTLEBLOWERS IN CRYPTO EXCHANGES; HERE ARE THE RED FLAG INDICATORS OF MONEY LAUNDERING:
The Financial Action Task Force https://www.fatf-gafi.org/ is an independent inter-government body that develops and promotes policies to protect financial systems against money laundering. Here are some of the FATF’s red flag indicators of money laundering which will lead you to establish the wrongdoing under the AntiMoney Laundering Act of 2020’s whistleblower program:
- Multiple immediate transfers of large amounts of virtual assets to overseas crypto accounts;
- Initial deposit inconsistent with customer profile for example where a personal account is opened for a young individual followed by deposits of a commercial natrure from different legal persons in large amounts;
- Incoming transactions from many unrelated wallets with transfer to another wallet of full exchange for fiat cirrency;
- Converting a large amount of fiat currency into vitual assets;
- Transactions making use of mixing and tumbling services to obscure the flkow of illicit funds between known wallet addresses and hidden ones;
- Using decentralized unhosted harware of paper wallets to transport virtual assets across borders;
- Using cryto exchanges by registering their internet domain names through poroxies;
- A large number of crypto assets of seemingly unrelated wallets controilled from the same IP address which may use shell wallets registered to different users;
- Senders who don’t sppear familiar with crypto currency technology or custodial wallet solutions as such persons may be money mules recruited by professional money launderers;
- Crypto currency transactions originating from or destined to online gambling services.;
- The use of credit cards or debit cards that are linked to crypt currency wallet to withdraw large sums in fiat cuirrency;
- Use of crypto exchanges in high risk foreign locations such as Estonia or other Eastern European nations;
JEFFREY NEWMAN REPRESENTS WHISTLEBLOWERS INCLUDING WHISTLEBLOWERS IN THE ANTI MONEY LAUNDERING WHISTLEBLOWER PROGRAM AS WELL AS THE SEC AND CFTC PROGRAMS. IF YOU KNOW HAVE SPECIFIC INSIDE INFORMATION OF MONEY LAUNDERING THROUGH A CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE, YOU MAY REACH ATTORNEY NEWMAN AT jeff@jeffnewmanlaw.com or BY CALLING 978-880-4758
