A FinCEN official expressed that crypto entities should not wait for the US administration to punish an address involved in illegal or criminal activity to block it.
A senior US Treasury Department official suggested the cryptocurrency sector actively blocks problematic wallets connected to criminal activity, even before that or any other government agency commands it.
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Associate Director of Compliance Alessio Evangelista expressed during a recent event that digital currency service providers should not wait until Treasury punishes an address for blocking it. CoinDesk highlighted the news, citing the official’s remarks during Chainalysis’s LINKS conference.
Evangelista said that cryptocurrency service providers have chosen to keep a quiet stance about blatantly suspicious wallets until the day of an OFAC designation or criminal indictment; the comment points to the US government’s list of punished entities.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is the financial agency under the Department of the Treasury’s control that manages and carries out economic and financial sanctions focused on US policy. Also part of the Treasury, FinCEN is a financial crime enforcement office.
Crypto-Companies Must Make a Move on the Matter
The official also highlighted that entities in the digital asset sector are putting their reputations at risk by ignoring many red flags that they could and possibly should have considered a long ago. In addition, he added that he thinks that entities carrying out activities in the sector need to have a better posture regarding their monitoring procedures effectively.
The comments seem to reflect on recent efforts made by federal officials across the nation to determine and fight against criminal behavior in the crypto sector. Last month, the Treasury Department detected the connection of a hacker team based in North Korea that appeared to be responsible for a $600 million attack on the Ronin network of the famous Axie Infinity game.
At the time, OFAC identified an Ethereum address as responsible for the attack and pointed it on its list of sanctioned bodies. This month, the bureau punished a crypto mixer for the first time due to its alleged use and other attacks led by North Korean cybercriminals.
According to CoinDesk, Evangelista mentioned this recent event during the talk. These funds got extracted to support a totalitarian regime that spends its money developing weapons of mass destruction at the expense of feeding its citizens, he said, reflecting on North Korea.
The official would also have called out digital currency projects that use the term “decentralization” as a buzzword and a way to avoid their compliance obligations. Crypto entities that operate under the direction of individuals cannot circumvent their compliance obligations by falsely calling themselves decentralized.
By: Jenson Nuñez
