TL;DR: The FCA is consulting on updated financial crime guidance for crypto businesses, including customer checks, blockchain analytics and the Travel Rule. Responses are due December 24, and the guide itself would not create new rules.
Crypto businesses preparing for the UKβs expanded regulatory regime have a more detailed picture of the controls the Financial Conduct Authority expects them to build.
The regulatorβs October 23 consultation proposes changes to its Financial Crime Guide, covering cryptoassets alongside fraud, sanctions, data security and money laundering. The proposals apply to the FCAβs financial crime supervisory population, including cryptoasset businesses and firms overseen under the Money Laundering Regulations.
The practical focus is on how firms assess customers and transactions, and how they react when risk changes. A blockchain record can help an investigation, but a record alone does not decide whether a customer explanation is credible or a transfer needs further scrutiny.
The consultation paper proposes examples of good and poor practice for enhanced due diligence, onboarding and transaction monitoring. It specifically addresses the use of blockchain analytics and further guidance on the Travel Rule, which concerns information accompanying certain transfers.
The paper also reminds firms that governance must evolve as their businesses grow. Its proposed changes include a question about whether policies and staff training distinguish obligations under proceeds-of-crime legislation from those under terrorism legislation.
For an exchange or provider of custody, the implication is that buying a screening product is only one part of the job. Someone still has to set its thresholds, review alerts and document decisions. A technically accurate warning is of limited use if it sits unreviewed while funds move elsewhere.
That matters for stablecoin transfers as much as for volatile tokens. A stable unit price does not establish the identity of a sender or the origin of funds. Transaction risk and market risk are different questions, and control systems need to reflect that distinction.
The FCA says the guide contains no rules and imposes no new requirements. It is intended to help firms understand supervisory expectations and assess their own arrangements. The consultation closes on December 24, after which the regulator plans to publish feedback and the final text in a policy statement.
Separately, the FCAβs regime overview says the wider cryptoasset framework is expected to begin on October 25, 2027. Applications for authorization are already open, and the regulator published a package of final rules in June.
The distinction between those stages matters for firms planning investment in compliance. This consultation does not postpone existing anti-money-laundering duties until next year, nor does it bring the whole future regime into force immediately. It fills in the proposed guidance firms can use when translating their obligations into day-to-day decisions.
Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
TL;DR: A Colombian crypto broker received a 160-month prison sentence in a US laundering and narcotics case, prosecutors announced October 21. The account describes a scheme moving criminal proceeds through Tether and US shell companies.
A New York federal judge has sentenced Leonardo de Jesus Zuluaga Duque to 160 months in prison in a case involving cryptocurrency, drug proceeds and transfers through the US banking system.
The US Attorneyβs Office for the Southern District of New York announced the sentence on Wednesday. Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil also imposed five years of supervised release and ordered forfeiture of $14,751,846, according to prosecutors.
The office described Zuluaga Duque as a Colombia-based crypto broker with a supervisory role in the network. It said he and others helped launder approximately $14.5 million in Tether derived from drug trafficking between May and November 2023.
Prosecutorsβ account describes proceeds converted into Tether, passed to an unlicensed money-transmission business and exchanged for US dollars. US shell companies then transferred funds to Colombian companies before the money was converted into pesos and distributed.
The token transfer was one link in a chain that also depended on companies, currency conversion and banking access. The proceeds ultimately reached recipients in local currency, prosecutors said.
Monitoring a blockchain address alone would not necessarily explain the commercial purpose of an associated bank transfer. Conversely, a bank record might show the receiving company without revealing the earlier token movement. Reconstructing the entire route requires connecting those pieces.
The approximately $14.5 million laundering figure describes the Tether transactions attributed to the group. The separate forfeiture order sets the amount Zuluaga Duque must surrender under the sentence; adding those figures would overstate the proceeds described in the case.
The prison term exceeds 13 years. Afterward, Zuluaga Duque faces the additional five-year period of supervised release announced by prosecutors.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
Oleg Korniev was a leader of YMCO, a sophisticated network of money mules that helped hackers move funds outside the US.
The post Mastermind of 15,000-Mule Cybercrime Laundering Network Pleads Guilty in US appeared first on SecurityWeek.
TomΓ‘Ε‘ JiΕΓkovskΓ½, a primary defendant in a major Czech cryptocurrency-laundering investigation, has signaled for the first time that he may cooperate with authorities. Following a custody hearing, a court ruled that JiΕΓkovskΓ½ must remain in detention due to flight risks and concerns that he retains control over undisclosed crypto assets. Current Status: Extended Detention The [β¦] 
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