What CGL is Reading Today: “Treasury Dept. blacklists crypto platform used in money laundering” by David Yaffe-Bellany
According to New York Times reporting, Americans can no longer legally send or receive funds using Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency platform, after it was placed by the U.S. Treasury Department on a blacklist of entities that operate in the digital asset space. The service, authorities maintain, has helped criminals launder more than $7 billion of virtual currencies. Crypto “mixers” like Tornado Cash work to make it difficult for regulators and other third parties to track digital currency transfers among the holders thereof. As crypto currencies are transferred among individual market participants, such flows are combined to obscure the origins and recipient of the transferred funds. Tornado Cash, the US government claims, was used to launder more than $455 million in digital assets stolen this year by a group of North Korean-backed hackers called the Lazarus Group. Such move by the Treasury Department against Tornado Cash comes in the wake of action undertaken by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission vis-à-vis Tether, the stablecoin company, and the Justice Department’s indictment of a former employee of Coinbase. The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is also under investigation by the Treasury Department for possible violations of U.S. sanctions.
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Ted Amley
Managing Attorney
With more than two decades of experience, Ted Amley has advised on hundreds of complex business, finance, and employment matters. His background includes roles at Cravath, Richards Kibbe, and Dentons, along with in-house experience at Morgan Stanley, Blackstone, and UBS. Now leading his own practice, Ted represents individuals, companies, funds, and institutions across sectors such as tech, real estate, healthcare, AI, ecommerce, and finance – offering strategic counsel on
equity, governance, contracts, lending, cross-border deals, and more.
Years of experience: 23+
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