French regulators have withdrawn a Paris-based virtual asset service provider’s, or VASP’s, authorization to operate after just 19 months following an inspection that unearthed "serious" anti-money laundering failures and other compliance-related shortcomings. In the first enforcement action of its kind, France's financial conduct authority, the Autorite des marches financiers, or AMF, and the country's financial supervisor, the Autorite de controle prudentiel et de resolution, or ACPR, announced their decision Wednesday to ban the BYKEP cryptocurrency trading platform from serving French customers. An onsite inspection in May found "serious failures in [BYKEP's] AML-CFT [anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing] framework, specifically in...
A sophisticated terrorist-financing network in France took advantage of the anonymity offered by cryptocurrency and especially cryptocurrency "coupons" to move funds to al-Qaida and Islamic State militants in Syria, French authorities said.
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