The US Treasury Department is seeking public comment on “Illicit Financing and National Security Threats Related to Digital Assets.” The department warned: “The increasing use of digital assets in financial transactions will increase crimes such as money laundering, terrorism and proliferation financing, fraud and theft and corruption.”
The U.S. Treasury seeks public comments on crypto-related illegal financing
The US Treasury Department on Tuesday issued a notice inviting interested members of the public to provide input on the March 9, 2022 executive order ‘Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.’ The announcement added:
The department invites comments on the digital-asset-related illicit financial and national security threats, as well as on the publicly released action plan to address the threats.
“Treasury welcomes comments on any issues that commenters believe are relevant to efforts to assess illicit financial risks associated with digital assets and ongoing efforts to address those risks,” the announcement added. Comments must be received on or before November 3.
“The use of digital assets in financial activities increases the risks of crimes such as money laundering, terrorism and proliferation financing, fraud and theft schemes, and corruption crimes,” the Treasury Department detailed. “These illegal activities highlight the need for continued scrutiny of the use of digital assets, the extent to which technological innovations can impact such activities, and the need to explore opportunities to address these risks through monitoring, surveillance, public and private participation, monitoring, and law enforcement.”
The Treasury has asked for detailed answers to questions on the illicit financial risks associated with digital assets, non-null tokens (NFTs), decentralized finance (defi) and peer-to-peer technologies.
The questions focus on illegal financial risks; Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) monitoring and control; International implementation of AML/CFT standards; Private sector engagement and AML/CFT solutions; and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).
One of the questions asks how the Treasury Department can “effectively support the consistent implementation of international AML/CFT standards across jurisdictions in digital assets.” In addition, the Treasury Department has asked whether there are specific countries or regions where the US government should focus its efforts to “strengthen foreign AML/CFT regimes related to virtual asset service providers.” A full list of questions is available here.
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