On 9th May, FinCEN issued an Advisory saying that criminals continue to exploit virtual currency to support illegal activity, money laundering, and other behaviour endangering US national security, including through entities facilitating its anonymous use. The purpose of the Advisory is said to be to assist financial institutions in identifying and reporting suspicious activity concerning how criminals and other bad actors exploit convertible virtual currencies (CVC) for money laundering, sanctions evasion, and other illicit financing purposes, particularly involving darknet marketplaces, peer-to-peer (P2P) exchangers, foreign-located Money Service Businesses (MSB), and CVC kiosks. It includes typical virtual currency abuse typologies, and “red flag” indicators.
