- US Treasury releases report on illicit finance.
- Prosecution of Binance held up as example of success.
- Investment needed to train enforcement professionals.
The US Department of the Treasury this week released its 2024 report on illicit finance, examining threats of money laundering and terrorist financing and its strategies to combat them.
The Treasury cited professional money launderers, financial fraudsters, cybercriminals and those seeking to finance terrorism as ongoing threats to the US financial system.
The 44-page report said anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) efforts must continue to adapt in order to be effective.
Among the vulnerabilities cited were obfuscation tools and methods such as mixers and anonymity-enhancing coins, AML/CFT compliance deficiencies at banks and complicit professionals who help facilitate illicit financial activity.
The Treasury cited the prosecution of Binance as an example of its success in supervising virtual asset activities.
Binance failed to prevent criminals, sanctioned entities, and other bad actors from laundering billions of dollars in dirty money, according to court papers. The company pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines and restitution, DL News reported.
Additionally, Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in federal prison for violating US banking laws and fined $50 million.
The US must continue “to invest in technology and training for analysts, investigators, and regulators to develop further expertise related to new technologies, including analysis of public blockchain data,” the report said.
Such expertise is crucial to the government’s ability to develop responses to new ways in which criminals misuse “virtual assets and other new technologies to profit from their illicit activity,” it said.