FinCEN: Peer-to-Peer “Exchanger” of Virtual Currency is an Unregistered Money Transmitter
Categories: Hi-Tech
On April 18, 2019, Eric Powers of Kern County, California, entered into a consent order with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) for acting as an unregistered money transmitter (the “Order”).FinCEN determined that Powers’ purchase and sale of Bitcoin for U.S. Dollars in over 1,700 “peer-to-peer” transactions from 2012 through 2014 made him an “exchanger” of convertible virtual currency. In FinCEN’s March 2013 guidance, FinCEN for the first time provided its view that “exchangers” of virtual currency are involved in money transmission and are therefore required to be registered with FinCEN as a money transmitter. Among other things, FinCEN imposed a civil monetary penalty of $35,350.
