US Congress Asks Financial Crime Director to Study Blockchain Tech

The United States House of Representatives has passed a bill that calls for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to study blockchain technology in its fight against financial crime.

On Sept. 19, the House passed the bill “Advancing Innovation to Assist Law Enforcement Act,” which requires the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Kenneth Blanco, to carry out a study on the use of emerging technologies, such as blockchain technology, within FinCEN. The bill reads:

“The Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) shall carry out a study on [...] whether AI, digital identity technologies, blockchain technologies, and other innovative technologies can be further leveraged to make FinCEN’s data analysis more efficient and effective.”

The Senate received the bill on Sept. 23, and referred it to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

Crypto and casinos

Cointelegraph previously reported that FinCEN Director Kenneth Blanco urged casinos to follow the guidelines of the financial crime-fighting agency in regards to suspicious convertible virtual currency (CVC) activity.

Blanco said that casinos dealing with crypto payments should consider how they will conduct due diligence on CVC transactions and blockchain analytics, adding:

“I encourage casinos to closely review both documents on FinCEN’s website to see how we are addressing this industry and its interactions with others in the financial sector. Casinos should be filing SARs when they encounter suspicious CVC activity and any cyber events that affect, facilitate, or conduct transactions. We know that casinos are targets for cyber and cyber-enabled criminal activity such as ransomware attacks and business e-mail compromise schemes.”

Blanco briefed members of the House

On June 28, Cointelegraph reported that Blanco briefed several members of the U.S. House of Representatives on the potential for Libra’s use in crimes such as money laundering, and illicit financing activities. Blanco talked about current research into artificial intelligence and machine learning and their use in regulating cryptocurrencies.