On May 9, 2019, the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued guidance on the application of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regulations, specifically those regulations applicable to money services businesses (MSBs), to certain business models involving the transmission of convertible virtual currencies (CVCs) (the “Guidance”). The Guidance follows previous interpretive guidance issued by FinCEN in 2013 relating to transactions involving the acceptance of currency or funds and the transmission of CVC. Also on May 9,…
Last week we reported that the US SEC stopped a fraudulent ICO that falsely claimed that it had SEC approval. Yesterday, the SEC suspended trading in the securities of a company amid questions surrounding its statements about partnering with a claimed SEC-qualified custodian for use with cryptocurrency transactions and a purportedly registered public offering of preferred stock. The SEC’s trading suspension order says that two August 2018 press releases issued by Nevada-based American Retail Group,…
On September 27, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against an international securities dealer and its Austria-based CEO for allegedly violating the federal securities laws in connection with security-based swaps funded with Bitcoins. According to the SEC’s Complaint, 1pool Ltd. a/k/a 1Broker, registered in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and its CEO Patrick Brunner, solicited investors from the United States and around the world to buy and sell security-based swaps. Investors…