Category: Opinion

Regulatory Watch News

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  Virtual Asset Trading Platform Pleads Guilty to Violating the Travel Act and Other Federal Criminal Charges

  US Department of Justice

  December 10, 2025

  Paxful Holdings Inc., an online virtual currency trading platform, agreed to plead guilty yesterday to a three-count information filed in the Eastern District of California and agreed to pay a criminal penalty of $4 million based on its ability to pay. “Paxful made millions of dollars in part by knowingly moving cryptocurrency for the benefit of fraudsters, extortionists, money launderers and purveyors of prostitution,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The defendant attracted its criminal clientele by promoting its lack of anti-money laundering controls and its deliberate decision not to identify its customers. This conviction shows that no matter the means, the Criminal Division will hold criminals accountable for knowingly engaging in illicit finance to further dangerous criminal activity.”

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  Europol-supported operation takes down key figures of ‘Balkan Cartel’ in Germany

  Europol

  December 10, 2025

  Europol supported law enforcement authorities from Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, and Serbia in carrying out a large-scale operation targeting a prominent cell of the so-called ‘Balkan Cartel’. During the action day conducted on 10 December 2025 in Germany, three suspects were arrested and over EUR 5 million in criminal assets were seized.

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  Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Renewal: Comment Request: Renewal Without Change on Information Collection Requirements in Connection with the Imposition of Special Measures

  FinCEN

  December 10, 2025

  As part of a continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comments on a renewal, without change, to information collection requirements found in Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regulations imposing the same special measures with respect to several different entities of primary money laundering concern. This request for comments is being made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.