FinCEN first fined a trader for the exchange of cryptocurrency

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) first fined a Bitcoin-trader for violating the Banking Secrecy Law (BSA) as part of the peer-to-peer exchange of cryptocurrencies. This is stated in a press release .

Thus, California resident Eric Powers was engaged in buying and selling bitcoins for clients, however, he was not registered as a money transfer operator or business owner in the financial services industry.

He allegedly came into contact with the dark-marketplace bitcoins of Silk Road and served clients through an anonymous network of proxy servers TOR, without requesting the necessary personal data and information about the origin of the funds. Accordingly, Powers has not filed any suspicious activity reports (SAR) or currency transaction reports (CTR) to the regulatory authorities.

In particular, in the period from 2012 to 2014, he carried out more than 200 transactions with fiat currency for an amount in excess of $ 10 thousand, and also carried out about 160 bitcoin transactions totaling around $ 5 million. None of them was properly registered.

As a result, FinCEN imposed a ban on the provision of Powers money transfer services and fined $ 35,000. It is noteworthy that the accused pleaded guilty.

“Obligations before the law apply to all money transfer operators, regardless of their size … They are engaged in money transfers and must be registered. Such punctures threaten our financial system and national security, and also undermine the principles of responsible development of the financial services industry, ”said Kenneth Blanco, FinCEN Director.

Full text of the decision:

Assessment Eric Powers Final for Posting 04.18.19_1 by schteringard on Scribd

We add that the head of the company TokenSoft Inc Mason Borda wrote on Twitter that this is the second such case, but did not provide more detailed information.

Second time!

– Mason & Co. (@masonic_tweets) April 19, 2019

Recall that at the end of last year, FinCEN obliged US financial institutions to provide information on real estate transactions acquired for cryptocurrency.

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