Justice entities in Brazil propose to build a research methodology to deal with money laundering cases with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The discussion on the subject will take place in an institutional association, known in Brazil as the National Strategy to Combat Corruption and Money Laundering. This group includes more than 70 institutions belonging to the three public powers of Brazil, which will meet in a national meeting between November 19 and 23, reported a national media.
According to the report, the objective is to evaluate the good practices applied worldwide for the cryptocurrency sector. With this base, they will establish a regulation with which a research flow model is offered to be adopted by researchers, promoters and other judicial entities.
Spokesmen of the Federal Police indicated that the lack of rules for the research flows of these crimes influences the effectiveness of the police in combating money laundering. This source stressed a case of the month of July, known as Operation Antigoon, where the police conducted research work to a criminal organization linked to drug trafficking worldwide. In this case, the criminals made millionaire transfers paid in bitcoins, but the Federal Police has not defined who to request the blocking of the securities negotiated in cryptactives.
Also, Camila Colares, Director of the Department of Asset Recovery and International Legal Cooperation, pointed out that she faces the challenge of finding a balanced solution.
The difficulty of regulation that we have today is because we still do not know the potential negative and positive-of these virtual assets. And it is in this context – of a topic on which there is still much to discover – that the Enccla discussed this issue in a broader way in 2018 and will continue the discussion in 2019 – now with a more criminal bias, always thinking of a responsible approach.
However, groups such as ABCB (Brazilian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain) and ABCripto (Brazilian Association of Cryptoeconomics) were not called for the ENNCLA meeting, according to another medium in the country. In this way, the discussion will not count on the contributions of members of the ecosystem.
Regulatory Movements in Brazil
There have been several movements by the authorities to achieve greater control over the cryptocurrency ecosystem. At the beginning of November, the body responsible for tax collection issued a set of rules that require reporting all operations of purchase of cryptoactive. This rule will apply both to cases of change and to natural and legal persons. This regulation is still in public consultation.
On the other hand, the use of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies in money laundering has been reported in other cases in Brazil. In March of this year, a money laundering operation was discovered that worked in a jail in Rio de Janeiro. In that case, the criminals also used cryptactives for money laundering.
By Samuel Paz
