Category: Regions

Regulatory Watch News

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  SFC sets out staking guidance for licensed virtual asset trading platforms and authorised virtual asset funds

  Securities and Futures Commission

  April 7, 2025

  The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today provided regulatory guidance respectively to licensed virtual asset trading platforms (VATPs) on their provision of staking services, and to SFC-authorised funds with exposure to virtual assets (VA Funds) on their engagement in staking . In setting out its regulatory approach, the SFC recognises the potential benefits of staking in enhancing the security of blockchain networks and allowing investors to earn yields on virtual assets within a regulated market environment. The latest guidance allows VATPs to expand product and service offerings, one of the five pillars set out in the SFC’s “ASPIRe” roadmap to develop Hong Kong’s virtual asset ecosystem

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  Final person sentenced over multi-jurisdictional money laundering syndicate

  Australia Federal Police

  April 7, 2025

  A Chatswood woman who washed $3.8 million for a Vietnamese money laundering syndicate has become the seventh and final person sentenced under Operation Avarus-Galetta. The woman, 26, was sentenced on 28 March, 2025, by the Downing Centre District Court to 21 months’ imprisonment, to be released after seven months on a Recognisance Release Order. AFP-led Taskforce Avarus launched an investigation in 2022 following a report received from the Commonwealth Bank Financial Crimes Intelligence Unit.

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  Two businessmen, a certified public accountant, and four Puerto Rico-based businesses indicted on charges of fraud, bribery, and money laundering

  IRS Criminal Investigation

  April 4, 2025

  San Juan, PR — W. Stephen Muldrow, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, announced the indictment of two businessmen, a certified public accountant, and four Puerto Rico-based companies for a fraudulent scheme to illegally obtain federal recovery funds under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, bribe a bank employee, and launder the fraudulent proceeds of the scheme. According to court documents, beginning no later than in or about May 2020, through at least November 2021, defendants and their co-conspirators submitted and caused the submission of at least 26 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applications seeking a total of at least $2,238,747 in EIDL and PPP proceeds from the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) and Bank 1, a Puerto Rico-based financial institution