Operate in the financial system with legal certainty and make your virtual currency projects and businesses profitable. We offer you our selected team of lawyers specialised in anti-money laundering in the crypto sector.
Anti-money laundering lawyers for projects and businesses using crypto-assets
Money laundering, terrorist financing and crypto-assets
Virtual currencies, in particular, and cryptoassets, in general, pose a number of legal challenges due to difficulties in the application of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulations to them.
Both the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the European Union (EU) are initiating a regulatory approach aimed at mitigating the risks that crypto-assets pose as instruments to contribute to money laundering and terrorist financing.
Money laundering is a procedure whose purpose is to hide or disguise the real origin of income from illicit activities. The aim is to make the illicitly obtained money look legal and to bring it into the ordinary monetary circle. The laundering process consists of three phases: phase 1 (introduction, insertion, concealment, location, substitution or placement of illicit funds in the economic or financial system), phase 2 (which aims at the layering, masking, concealment, transformation or conversion of this money, which involves carrying out a set of operations aimed at concealing or hiding in order to make the link between the asset and its source disappear, giving the appearance of legality to such operations) and the third phase (which seeks the integration or return of the asset to the assets of the person who generated it illicitly…).
It is assumed that criminal organisations and terrorist groups try not to leave any information trace or be detected when carrying out illegal activities. Cash transactions allow total anonymity, which makes them an attractive payment method for criminals. Alongside them, financial products that offer similar anonymity, such as virtual currencies or crowdfunding platforms, are also said to be vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing.
Current Spanish legislation on the prevention of anti-money laundering and the financing of terrorism incorporates Directive 2018/843 (known as the “Fifth Directive”), and as a result, the following are now included as obligated parties under the AML/CFT regulations:
- providers of services for the exchange of virtual currency for fiat currency;
- providers of virtual currency transfer services;
- providers of e-wallet custodian services; and
- financial service providers that enable the issuance and trading of virtual assets that qualify as transferable securities.
In addition, the activity of these service providers is subject to their inclusion in an administrative register managed by the Bank of Spain (Banco de España).
What services do we offer you as lawyers specializing in anti-money laundering?
Our team of experienced anti-money laundering lawyers combine their in-depth expertise in the field of money laundering with the blockchain technology with its legal expertise and experience in criminal law and money laundering law, in order to be able to offer you a high quality, useful and tailor-made service:
- Legal advice and preparation of the dossier of documents required from e-wallet custodian providers, virtual currency for fiat currency exchange service providers, virtual currency transfer service providers, and providers that allow the issuance and trading of virtual assets that are tradable securities, in order to be admitted to the administrative register of the Banco de España and to start operating.
- Compliance with current regulations on the prevention of anti-money laundering and the financing of terrorism for companies operating with crypto-assets.
- External anti-money laundering audit services for crypto sector companies.
- Formalities, communications and defence before SEPBLAC (Executive Service of the Commission for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Monetary Offences).
- Drafting money laundering prevention manuals and risk analyses.
- Specialised AML/CFT training for the crypto sector.
- Issuance of opinions and second opinions.
What do we guarantee at Algoritmo Legal?
- Personalized and professional attention.
- Clear services and transparent fees.
- Absolute confidentiality.
- Legal assistance in accordance with the law.
- We operate throughout Spain.
Case studies
- We were in charge of drafting the AML/CFT report for the technology company that created the blockchain-based smart will, Tuilli, in the framework of the 2021 Spanish financial sandbox. Report accepted and approved by the Bank of Spain and the Directorate General of Insurance and Pension Funds, which allowed the company to start testing the sandbox.