Moscow’s AML agency has warned Russians that crypto exchanges and brokers operating in the country are providing police with transaction data.
Per the Russian media outlet RBC, the claim came from Olga Tisen, head of the legal department of the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (Rosfinmonitoring).
Warning for Russians: Crypto Exchanges Are Working With Police
Tisen was speaking at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum, currently underway at the city’s ExpoForum Convention and Exhibition Center.
Tisen said that the “anonymity of crypto transfers is a myth.” She claimed that even though Russia has yet to regulate crypto exchanges and brokers, platform operators “disclose all data on the owners of crypto wallets at the request of law enforcement agencies.”
The ExpoForum Convention and Exhibition Centre, St. Petersburg. (Source: Ekatekat [CC BY-SA 4.0])
In many other countries, regulation requires crypto exchanges to flag suspicious-looking transactions and report these to anti-money laundering agencies.
However, in Russia, crypto exchanges have no legal status and are almost completely unregulated.
But Tisen suggested that exchanges are pre-empting future efforts to police the sector.
As such, she said, they are “openly admitting” to sending customer information “at the request of law enforcement and government agencies.”
Tisen added that police do not even need court orders to obtain crypto exchange customer data, “since cryptocurrency transactions are not subject to banking privacy protocols.”
The Rosfinmonitoring executive added that “all crypto platforms with offices in Russia” currently “interact with the authorities.”
Tisen added that many platforms openly state on their websites that they interact with Russian law enforcement agencies. She added that this practice “complies with international standards.”
In addition, Rosfinmonitoring says that it receives data from banks on crypto transactions. The same agency has already asked the banking sector to carefully monitor all crypto-related account activity.
‘Blockchain Analytics Solution Helping Us Monitor Transactions’
The agency also plans to let commercial banks use its blockchain analytics tool (Transparent Blockchain) to monitor personal bank accounts.
Rosfinmonitoring will provide the tool to banks before the end of the year. The agency has already granted several government agencies and overseas anti-money laundering intelligence agencies access to the tool.
In total, 12,000 law enforcers and regulators in Russia and former Soviet Union member states have access to Transparent Blockchain.
The Central Bank uses Transparent Blockchain to monitor the Russian web traffic to major international crypto exchanges.
In April, Rosfinmonitoring said it wanted Moscow to criminalize illegal crypto mining. It claimed its proposal had the backing of the Central Bank and several key ministries.
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