Top Bitcoin executives charged with money laundering in US
Two Bitcoin executives have been charged in the US with conspiring to commit money laundering by selling more than USD one million of the digital currency to users of an illicit online drugs bazaar ‘Silk Road’. India-born US Attorney Preet Bharara brought the criminal charges in Manhattan federal court against underground Bitcoin exchanger Robert Faiella, 52, and Chief Executive Officer and Compliance Officer of a Bitcoin exchange company Charlie Shrem, 24. [Read More…]SDNY Plans Unit Name Change Amid Money Laundering Focus
The powerful Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office plans to add “money laundering” to the name of its criminal division’s asset forfeiture unit, in the latest sign of its focus on the area. This move, mentioned by U.S. Attorney at a conference Monday, comes on the heels of his office’s $1.7 billion settlement with J. P. Morgan ChaseJPM -0.66% & Co. announced this month over anti-money laundering lapses. “J.P. Morgan is not going to be the last big case that my office brings in this area. I can promise that,” he said at an Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists event in New York. [Read More…]FINRA fines Banorte-Ixe Securities for poor anti-money laundering practices
The US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has imposed a penalty of $475,000 against Banorte-Ixe Securities International, for inadequate anti-money laundering (AML) systems and procedures as well as failing to register foreign finders. The market regulatory agency said that the New York-based securities firm opened an account for a corporate customer owned by an individual with reported connection to a drug cartel. Furthermore, Banorte Securities failed to identify, investigate or report the suspicious rapid movement of $28m in and out of the account, claims FINRA. [Read More…]New York may offer virtual currency regulations this year
New York’s top bank regulator on Tuesday revealed new plans to regulate businesses handling transactions in bitcoin this year, saying the state may issue new financial services licenses tailored to virtual currencies. Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s financial services superintendent, raised his idea for a “BitLicense” in a hearing a day after a prominent bitcoin entrepreneur was arrested on money laundering charges. “The first job is to get rid of money laundering,” said Lawsky, speaking to panelists at the hearing whose panelists included the investor twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and the venture capitalist Fred Wilson. [Read More…]Rizzuto’s construction links traced to ’60s Montreal
Before he reached the top of the Mafia in Canada, Nicolo Rizzuto owned a construction company that won municipal contracts in Montreal. The late patriarch of one of the world’s most powerful Mafia clans was a municipal contractor 50 years before the authorities decided to investigate whether organized crime had a hold on the construction industry and public contracts in the province, The Gazette has discovered through an examination of municipal archives, and business and real-estate records from half a century ago. [Read More…]Industry News
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