News
Justice Department Weighing Bitcoin Prosecutions, Says FBI Agent
By Brian Orsak and Colby Adams
printThe U.S. Justice Department is expected to decide within the fiscal year whether prosecutors can bring charges against entities using a controversial virtual currency, an FBI official said Thursday. The currency, known as Bitcoin, allows individuals and merchants to anonymously transact without the aid of payment processors or other regulated financial institutions. The payment system, created in 2009 by an anonymous computer programmer, operates via a software platform that is overseen collectively by Bitcoin users. The system has drawn the attention of high-level department officials, who are weighing whether Bitcoin users have violated laws requiring them to register with the...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
It has had a difficult childhood and a rocky adolescence, but Bitcoin is a pretty smart payment protocol that still has a promising future.
Love or hate New Yorks plans to shield Bitcoin and its competitors from financial crooks, one thing is certain: the proposal is only the first of dozens that will shape the industry.
More than a year into an effort by the digital currency industry to convince critics that its promise doesn't extend to criminals more than consumers, Bitcoin proponents are questioning whether they have the right messenger to deliver their message.
As federal investigators continue to pursue illicit online vendors in the wake of its high-profile prosecution of Silk Road, they will face two hurdles: evolving data-encryption and an atomized black market.
For all of the legitimate concerns and overheated rhetoric about the rise of crypto-currencies, the biggest problem for Bitcoin may be one seldom discussed by critics: its abuse by tax dodgers.
Federal lawmakers are unlikely to move quickly to regulate digital currencies despite congressional skepticism about the technology, a senate staffer told attendees of a Bitcoin conference in New York.
With New York rules for digital currency exchanges in the works, other states are stepping up to draft rules of their own, speakers at a Manhattan Bitcoin conference said Monday.
A pair of congressional reports on the financial crime risks associated with Bitcoin and other digital currency platforms are slated for publication in April, say sources.
A well-known advocate of digital currencies and the head of a Bitcoin exchange house facilitated over $1 million in transactions tied to an online black market, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Turned away by American banks, some U.S.-based digital currency companies are using foreign bank accounts to send their proceeds back into the United States to pay employees and clients.
Ready or not, Bitcoin is growing in Europe, even as European regulators struggle to figure out how or if they'll police the virtual currency.
New York States financial regulator will soon hold a public hearing to determine whether it should license digital currency companies that comply with regulations aimed at money launderers and fraudsters.
The indictment Wednesday of an online black market for narcotics and weapons vendors could further hamper proponents of a growing digital currency in the eyes of bank compliance officers.
As digital currencies like Bitcoin continue to gain popularity, banks may have to train their compliance officers on the technical means to trace such money movements, according to Daniel Wood, an assistant general counsel with the Texas Department of Banking.
The second installation of a two-part story on how the Bitcoin market is changing under the scrutiny of federal and state officials.
Even as the use of Bitcoin grows, the differences in opinion about the risks the digital currency poses only seems to get larger.
When FinCEN issued its innocuously entitled guidance, "Application of FinCEN's Regulations to Persons Administering, Exchanging, or Using Virtual Currencies" in March, an already speculative currency may have received its death blow.
A Pakistani opposition leader believes that new legislation will open the "doors for money laundering", banking executives in the U.S. and elsewhere believe that most financial institutions are unlikely to meet the January 2013 deadline for the FATCA, and more, in the weekly roundup.
The OCC dings three banks for AML problems, Argentina publishes new rules related to corruption in soccer clubs, and more in this week's news roundup.
An emerging virtual currency intended to be used in lieu of cash could also be a vehicle for criminals seeking to make international transactions anonymously, according to investigators.