Article: Three Sued Over Blockchain Firm Trading

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Three Sued Over Blockchain Firm Trading

Matthew Heller, 12 July 2021

The controlling shareholder of Long Blockchain has been charged with tipping off his broker about the company’s pivot to blockchain technology before it was publicly announced.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Eric Watson, a New Zealand national, engaged in an insider trading scheme with Oliver Barret-Lindsay, his friend and broker, and stock promoter Gannon Giguiere, that allegedly resulted in Giguiere making a profit of $162,500 on Long Blockchain shares.

According to the SEC, Watson tipped off Lindsay in December 2017 that the company formerly known as Long Island Tea would be switching from making iced tea and lemonade to providing blockchain technology and Lindsay passed the tip on Giguiere. Continue reading “Article: Three Sued Over Blockchain Firm Trading”

Article: SEC charges three people for Long Blockchain Corp insider trading

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SEC charges three people for Long Blockchain Corp insider trading

Patrick Thompson, 09 July 2021

In December 2017, at the peak of the era that many refer to as ‘crypto mania’, New York-based beverage maker ‘Long Island Ice Tea’ changed its name to “Long Blockchain Corp. At the time of the rebrand, the beverage maker said they would transition out of manufacturing beverages and focus their efforts on blockchain technology.

After the rebrand, shares of Long Blockchain Corp rocketed upward by more than 380% intraday–unfortunately, Long Blockchain Corp never transitioned into producing blockchain technologies; which is one of the reasons that three individuals connected to the company have just been charged with insider trading related to the Long Blockchain Corp stock. Continue reading “Article: SEC charges three people for Long Blockchain Corp insider trading”

Article: The real cost of money laundering is not only monetary

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The real cost of money laundering is not only monetary

David Lindsay, 18 June 2021

Money laundering can often be seen as a somewhat nebulous, victimless crime that doesn’t affect the everyday person. But Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit Guidance and Outreach Manager Dr Clara Borg Bonaci tells David Lindsay about how money laundering not only deprives government coffers of funds that could be used for the betterment of society, it also feeds serious predicate crimes such as the trafficking of drugs and arms, human smuggling and child sexual exploitation – ‘horribly destructive crimes that have an immense social cost’

Money laundering is often seen as a victimless crime that doesn’t necessarily affect the average person on the street. What are the ramifications of such practices on a wider scale? What are the hidden predicate crimes and what are their effects on the economy at large?

The truth is that the fight against money laundering and the funding of terrorism can be highly regulatory and involves the implementation of numerous laws, which makes it easier for us, and the entities we supervise, to sometimes forget or be disconnected from why we are actually doing it.

In its simplest form, money laundering is the process of placing funds that have been generated illegally into the financial system in such a way that they are disconnected from the criminal activity, so that even the identity of the person who conducted that crime is obfuscated and the funds cannot be immediately connected to the person or the crime.

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Article: A long road for the FIAU: meeting Malta’s anti-money laundering commitments

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A long road for the FIAU: meeting Malta’s anti-money laundering commitments

David Lindsay, 09 June 2021

Earlier this week the Council of Europe’s MONEYVAL published a progress report showing significantly improved ratings for Malta in its fight against money laundering and terrorist financing from a technical perspective. Thursday’s report clearly acknowledged the progress made since Malta’s earlier evaluation, at times doing so quite openly when confirming that, “Malta was among the first MONEYVAL countries to implement the regulatory and institutional framework and conduct assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risks in this area. Malta’s rating on the implementation of this recommendation has been upgraded from ‘partially compliant’ to ‘largely compliant’.”

The government has undertaken several key reforms in the wake of MONEYVAL’s report two years ago, including the bolstering of Malta’s regulatory authorities, introducing new laws and strengthening the police force’s arm responsible for investigating financial crimes. Continue reading “Article: A long road for the FIAU: meeting Malta’s anti-money laundering commitments”

THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?