sanctions – Page 34

US Treasury Dept sanctions crypto OTC broker Suex for alleged role in facilitating transactions for ransomware attacks

September 21, 2021

The government agency hinted at possible additional sanctions for “financial institutions, cyber insurance firms, and companies involved in digital forensics and incident response” that facilitated ransomware payments. The United States Department of the Treasury has announced it will impose sanctions on Czech Republic and Russia-based business Suex OTC for allegedly allowing hackers to access cryptocurrency…
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US sanctions agency OFAC to rely more heavily on Chainalysis

May 28, 2021

Govt agencies want more tools to trace suspect crypto transactions. The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control has requested another subscription to Chainalysis analytics software in order to step up its blockchain transaction surveillance efforts. In a public notice sent out on May 26, the agency confirmed its intention to subscribe to Chainalysis’s Rumker Training…
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Law Decoded: Bringing blockchain into securities markets, Feb. 12–19

February 20, 2021

But security tokens are not ready to take over the world quite yet. Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor’s note Technology is by and large not the major barrier — though many in the industry have a decent bit of hubris…
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Another crypto firm hit with fines for violating U.S. sanctions

February 18, 2021

BitPay apparently screened merchants but not customers. BitPay will have to pay the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control over half a million dollars for crypto services to sanctioned regions. In a Feb. 18 announcement of the settlement, OFAC said that BitPay had facilitated “approximately $129,000 worth of digital currency-related transactions with BitPay’s merchant customers”…
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BitGo settles with US Treasury over sanctions violations in Iran, Syria and Cuba

December 30, 2020

The settlement repeats the Treasury’s message that crypto companies will need to know their customers. The U.S. Treasury has settled with BitGo over charges that it facilitated users in sanctioned areas to transact using its crypto wallet services between 2015 and 2019. BitGo, an institutional crypto custodian service and wallet operator, did not do due…
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Venezuela ramps up Bitcoin payments for imports from Iran and Turkey

December 10, 2020

Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro claims the country will “use all the cryptocurrencies in the world” to bypass U.S. sanctions. According to an investigative report from RunRun.es, Venezuela intends to increase its use of Bitcoin to pay for imports to bypass financial sanctions imposed by the United States. RunRun.es, which was founded by Venezuelan investigative journalist…
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SWIFT enables instant cross-border payments

December 3, 2020

This seemingly fight-or-flight response to blockchain’s rising ubiquity may be too little, too late. SWIFT, the Brussels-based interbank cooperative, has unveiled its first active instant cross-border payment connection — a move that could have major implications for the global payments landscape. The cooperative announced Thursday that United Kingdom-based Lloyds Banking Group has become the first…
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Venezuelan army starts mining Bitcoin to make ends meet

November 30, 2020

The Venezuelan army turns to crypto mining as the country’s economy collapses. The regime of Nicolás Maduro continues to lean on crypto to keep economically solvent. Via Instagram, an engineering brigade of the Venezuelan army inaugurated the new “Digital Assets Production Center of the Bolivarian Army of Venezuela.” As the video shows, the center houses…
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US intelligence is looking at Chinese CBDC as a national security threat

November 25, 2020

The Director of National Intelligence wants to have the SEC’s leader briefed on the dangers of the U.S. falling behind in crypto. The United States national security apparatus is warning other agencies about China’s upcoming digital currency. On Wednesday, news outlet the Washington Examiner reported on a letter that National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe had…
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US Government labels Virgil Griffith’s argument to dismiss sanctions charges ‘absurd’

November 23, 2020

Government lawyers implied that citizens could legally pass along nuclear secrets to North Korea if held to the same standards as Griffith. Lawyers representing the United States government have filed a legal memo opposing the dismissal of charges for Virgil Griffith, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher accused of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions against the…
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Category: sanctions