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Money Laundering

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On January 29, 2021, Hugo Sergio Mejia, 49, of California, was charged in a two-count information with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and money laundering. In a plea agreement, Mejia agreed to plead guilty to these felony offenses. According to his plea agreement, from May 2018 to September 2020, Mejia operated a virtual currency business that exchanged Bitcoin for cash, and vice versa, charging commissions for these transactions. Mejia admitted he never registered his…

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) is a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury whose mission is to safeguard the financial system from illicit use and to combat money laundering and promote national security through the collection, analysis, and dissemination of financial intelligence and strategic use of financial authorities. In prepared remarks to the American Bankers Association/American Bar Association Financial Crimes Enforcement Conference, Kenneth Blanco, FinCEN Director, announced a new 314(b) Fact Sheet issued on December…

On October 10, CipherTrace – a developer of cryptocurrency AML, bitcoin forensics, and blockchain threat solutions – released its Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Report – Q3 2018 (the “Report”).  The Report analyzed 45 million bitcoin transactions involving the top 20 global cryptocurrency exchanges to produce some sobering findings regarding the level of criminal activity at crypto exchanges and the effectiveness of AML regulation. Some key findings are summarized below. 97% of bitcoin payments made directly from…