A new law that richly rewards corporate whistleblowers could bring an end to the use of cryptocurrencies for money laundering. But if it does, will legitimate holders of crypto be left with anything of value?
At the end of 2022, President Biden signed into law the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Improvement Act. Covering more than two dozen categories of financial transactions, from banks to casinos, AMLA provides fresh incentives and protections to whistleblowers who report illegal dealings to their employers, the Secretary of the Treasury or Attorney General.
Attorney Stephen M. Kohn, a founding partner of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto LLP, is a longtime expert in whistleblower law, and author of the new book Rules for Whisteblowers. He describes AMLA as a “Dodd-Frank Act for all money laundering and sanctions violations,” referencing the Wall Street reform measure enacted in 2010. Under this new law, individuals from any country receive full confidentiality and anonymity for revealing acts of money laundering, including violations spelled out under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 and Bank Secrecy Act of 1970. But the real incentive for whistleblowers is monetary: they’re now eligible to receive between 10% and 30% of the amount recovered in the action — an award that can number in the millions of dollars. In the recent $200 billion money-laundering case involving the Estonian branch of Dankse Bank, for example, over $2 billion was recovered on behalf of...
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