- FINCEN’s Jamal El-Hindi warns companies building cryptocurrencies about illegal transactions.
- FinCEN will have a close look at all the illicit transactions happening across Social Media.
- FinCEN sees Social Media, Messenger applications as the top infected platforms for money laundering and terrorist financing.
Speaking during the Anti-Money Laundering conference, the deputy director of the Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Jamal El-Hindi remarked that the Social media networks and messaging platform with crypto activities must look at the anti-money laundering acts.
FinCEN appointed Jamal El-Hindi in May 2015 to oversee several tasks required to safeguard United States’ financial system from illicit transactions, money laundering activities and other transactions that are associated with criminal acts in a country.
20th SIFMA Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crimes Conference
Noticeably, the report comes in the wake of Jamal El-Hindi’s presence at the 20th conference of Securities Industry and Financial Market Association (SIFMA) which was held in New York on February 06, 2020. SIFMA is a non-profit trade association, representing financial firms of all sizes including investment brokerage firms, securities brokerage firms and other investment entities in the United States.
While delivering the talk on the illicit transactions fostering the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, Jamal El-Hindi stated that the social media companies, especially those who are building cryptocurrencies must guard their system. He elaborates that these companies must be careful and vigilant about any illegal transactions.
Undeniably, Facebook’s plan of launching Libra is under fire following continued regulatory push backs – however, reports also note that the prepared remark of Jamal El Hindi neither had any highlight about Facebook nor about Libra.
Nonetheless, FinCEN will maintain a bird’s eye on every entity striving to enter the global financial system. Furthermore, they will review whether or not the companies entering the financial system with the approach of cryptocurrency adhere to laws set in place including – preparing a report on money laundering, terrorist financing, and other impermissible activities.
It was also reported that FinCEN is working closely with two the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to deal with the issues concerning digital assets. More so, FinCEN is reportedly focusing on the web and mobile application of social media platforms as they perceive these applications tend to attract money laundering and terrorist financing.