If You Do the Crime, You Do the Time

If crime doesn’t pay, then financial crime definitely doesn’t pay, especially if you’re the CEO and co-founder of an exchange convicted of massive fraud whose actions led to the loss of billions for customers and tanked the value of crypto as people realized how real the risk of fraud and criminal action can be in the crypto space.

Last week, following a process which started with his arrest in December 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison and to pay $11 billion after having previously being found guilty of seven felony charges which led to the collapse of his FTX crypto exchange and then the Almeda Research trading firm he co-founded. The litany of charges Bankman-Fried was convicted on were:

• Wire fraud for FTX Customers, 
• Conspiracy to commit wire fraud for FTX customers, 
• Wire fraud for lenders, 
• Conspiracy to commit wire fraud for lenders, 
• Conspiracy to commit securities fraud, 
• Conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and 
• Conspiracy to commit money laundering. 

Further charges which included bribe allegations were not brought to trial in order to expedite the process and because the conclusion was unlikely to alter the sentence. 

Since his arrest, Sam Bankman-Fried has maintained that he was innocent of deliberate wrongdoing and that he just made bad decisions, but the fact that this could even be a consideration highlights how important regulatory controls are for businesses in the crypto scene and their customers. Even if Bankman-Fried’s protests of innocence were true, businesses should be embracing regulatory controls to ensure they don’t fall foul of the same mistakes and subsequent fines - which have run into the billions in some instances, including for Bankman-Fried - and jail time.    

Without appropriate safeguards to ensure that bad practice or malicious actors are stymied, and without sufficient means for businesses and regulators to ensure that best practices and compliance measures are being followed, the crypto world will always be at risk of either incompetence or criminals looking to play the system for their own gain. It’s not until strong regulations and compliance solutions are embedded in the ecosystem that crypto will truly be able to gain mass adoption and thrive. 

The goal of Blockpass is to see that everyone has access to a safe, simple and secure way to meet regulatory requirements - to prove their compliance in a system that seeks to protect the people within it. By providing the highest quality, effective and usable KYC, AML, KYB solutions and more, Blockpass enables the crypto and blockchain worlds to keep above board, and to prove that they do. With developments such as Unhosted Wallet KYCTM, the recently-launched Advanced KYC BotTM, and further compliance tools to improve and streamline the process constantly being worked on, Blockpass is ready for any regulated entity’s needs. 

As regulations grow and evolve to ensure bad or incompetent actors can’t benefit from or play havoc with the cryptocurrency ecosystem, Blockpass will be ready to ensure legitimate businesses and real customers are able to prove and verify and build their identities and suitability and to be protected by them. 

About Blockpass

Ditch tedious onboarding and say hello to seamless compliance with Blockpass, the ultimate turnkey solution for KYC, KYB, and AML. Experience the market's most efficient and cost-effective compliance suite, built by seasoned compliance veterans and crypto-natives. Automate compliance processes, eradicate fraud, and onboard globally with confidence. Verify businesses worldwide, launch bank-grade verification for your organization, and instantly activate compliant KYC/AML for DeFi, exchanges, token launchpads, NFT mintings and beyond. Through Blockpass’ decentralized network of a million pre-verified crypto-enthusiasts and a thousand pre-verified businesses, you can expand your reach effortlessly. Leverage Advanced KYC BotTM for intelligent remediation, On-Chain KYC® for data-free anonymity, and Unhosted Wallet KYCTM to meet Crypto Travel Rule regulations. Join Animoca Brands, Cardano, Polygon, Chainlink, Delta Exchange, National Geographic, TinyTap, Seedify, ChainGPT, Iskra and many more in partnering with Blockpass for compliance you can trust, growth you can accelerate and an experience you can enjoy. Join the cutting edge of secure, streamlined onboardings.

Learn more and engage the Blockpass team via the following:

Website: http://www.blockpass.org

Email: [email protected]

- By Matthew Warner