Federal regulatory and law enforcement agencies have been redirecting and expanding their resources to investigate and combat frauds involving crypto and other digital platforms. The SEC recently requested $200M from Congress to hire additional 170 new employees, many to focus on crypto-related cases. These new hires will include lawyers in the Division of Enforcement’s [...]
News reports today indicate that Bravo celebrity Jen Shah was sentenced to 78 months for her role in a wire fraud that resulted in $5 million in losses. For people unfamiliar with the federal sentencing guidelines, the base offense level for a wire fraud is enhanced by a number of levels that corresponds to [...]
In United States v. Fallon, a precedential opinion published on September 30, the Third Circuit reversed a defendant’s conviction for money laundering and, more importantly, issued a bright-line rule holding that financial transactions that take place before a defendant receives any proceeds from a fraudulent scheme cannot be considered “concealment” money laundering under 18 [...]
Courts uphold federal government’s ability to seize a convicted defendant’s 401(k) accounts to satisfy an Order of Restitution after a conviction at trial or a guilty plea.
It’s 6 a.m. or 8 p.m., your doorbell rings and two people are standing outside holding up their badges and credentials. They say they are Special Agents with the FBI or IRS and would like to talk with you for just a few minutes about something important. They ask if they could come in [...]
Each new administration, through its Attorney General, set policy as to the Department of Justice’s enforcement priorities. As the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, Kenneth Polite recently outlined those priorities. In general, those areas include foreign corruption, computer crimes and money laundering. Polite announced that his office will be unveiling a [...]
As digital currencies have become more popular and commonplace, the government has stepped up its efforts to make sure that transactions and offerings do not run afoul of established regulations.
At airports throughout the United States, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers are seizing travelers’ cash when coming into and leaving the country for failure to report the cash. Regular international travelers may be familiar with the Customs forms airlines hand out just prior to arrival in the United States. On the form you must declare goods purchased during your international travel, as well as any cash in excess of $10,000. Most people do not realize, however, that you must also declare any cash in excess of $10,000 before you leave the United States, as well.
In their simplest form, Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are digital representations of value that can be traded through an exchange and stored in digital wallets secured by 26-35 character long case sensitive account numbers that require a private key, similar to a password or pin to access. Virtual currency is not legal tender issued or guaranteed by any government. Rather, its value is determined by consensus within a community of users. Since these transactions are done on the internet and through exchanges using cash, wire transfers, or credit cards to a host of web-based businesses, the purchasers’ identities and source of funds are more difficult to uncover.
The term "money laundering" can invoke images of organized crime mobsters engaged in activities such as taking over businesses and using them to hide ill-gotten funds derived from other illegal activities. That may, indeed, be one example of money laundering in practice, but money laundering can include many different kinds of activities some of which may be less obvious than the previous example.