Money-Laundering Laws Should Cover Virtual Currency Exchange Businesses

By David Carlisle

David Carlisle is an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute's Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies. He previously worked in the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. This included work in the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, where Carlisle was involved in the design and implementation of U.S. financial and economic sanctions programs involving countries such as Myanmar and Iran. In subsequent roles, David advised senior Treasury officials on a wide range of topics related to sanctions, money laundering and terrorist financing.

Continuing terror attacks around the world indicate law enforcement and intelligence agencies face difficulty in trying to identify and disrupt the plans of globally disparate and loosely affiliated entities. Terrorist groups have adapted to each step security services take against terror, including the severing of financial lifelines. With growing terrorist presence on the internet, groups could eventually turn to virtual currencies such as bitcoins to bankroll their operations. The Cipher Brief’s Levi Maxey spoke with David Carlisle, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies, about what a turn to terrorist use of virtual currencies could look like, and how it would align with the physical collaboration with criminal networks already taking place.

The Cipher Brief: Have terrorist groups used virtual currencies in the past, and if it has been minimal, why do you think that is?

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