The lawyer representing Anthony Murgio in an ongoing case regarding his now-closed firm Coin.mx argued today why he thinks the law being used to prosecute his client needs to be changed.
Speaking on a panel with six other digital currency regulation experts during the final day of Consensus 2016, Brian Klein, a partner at law firm Baker Marquart, explained what he called the "most important" regulation pertaining to criminal money transmission that he said most people have never heard of.
Called the Prohibition of unlicensed money-transmitting businesses – 18 USC 1960, the statute includes three specific ways to violate the law and can be applied to a violator regardless of the person’s intent.
Klein said: "I do happen to think it’s overly broad. I do think there needs to be specific intent." Klein’s client, Anthony Murgio, was indicted for operating an unlicensed money transmission business in a case that involves allegations that he knowingly handled funds that were being used to pay a ransomware demand.
After a detailed review of the law’s requirements that money transmitters register with the state, with Fincen, and may not transport funds for "some sort of" criminal purpose, Klein said he was currently working to get the law changed. Simplifying the requirements
Following Klein’s address to an audience of about 30 people, Dana Syracuse, a former New York Department of Financial Services attorney who helped oversee the state’s creation of the BitLicense for regulating digital currencies, talked about why he thinks its important for future versions of digital currency controls to keep compliance demands to a minimum.
In addition to advocating for what is widely called an on-ramping of the law which amounts to less-demanding compliance requirements for new companies, Syracuse, now a partner at law firm Buckley Sandler, argued for the standardization of state-by-state demands.
Syracuse said: "There really […]
