TRM Talks

The FBI was created in 1908 to address fast moving technological developments of the day. That same year Henry Ford's Model T began rolling off assembly lines making automobiles affordable to the masses and attractive to illicit actors who could drive cross country on violent crime sprees -- think Bonnie and Clyde. Indeed, it was cross-border technology that called for a national law enforcement entity with the tools and training necessary to meet a new breed of borderless criminal.  

While the technology has changed over the years, the Bureau's mission has stayed the same: "to identify, disrupt and dismantle existing and emerging criminal enterprises whose activities affect the United States." Today, George "Machine Gun" Kelly has been replaced by ransomware-as-a-service providers, darknet market administrators, cybercriminals, weapons proliferators and other modern threat actors. Many of these criminals have gone online in order to move funds at the speed of the internet, elude law enforcement, and obfuscate transactions.   

This month, a New York Times headline read, "Bitcoin and Encryption: A Race Between Criminals and the F.B.I.," and The Wall Street Journal sounded, "FBI Director Compares Ransomware Challenge to 9/11." As illicit actors and the FBI move to a digital battlefield, cryptocurrency, the internet of money, poses both unique risks and unique capabilities. TRM Talks to the FBI about how the Bureau is meeting these emerging threats and building cases in the age of crypto.  

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about

For decades, policymakers across the globe have increasingly used economic sanctions to disrupt terror networks, limit the spread of weapons of mass destruction, punish human rights violations, deter election interference, and isolate rogue regimes. While the United States, the European Union and the United Nations deploy sanctions differently, all three focus on one common goal - cutting off illicit actors from the traditional financial system to prevent them from moving money and buying goods.

However, as we move from the fiat world of hawalas and shell companies to the digital world of programmatic money laundering in cryptocurrencies, what is the impact to economic sanctions? How do cryptocurrencies, with their promise of speed, pseudo-anonymity, and borderless reach, impact nation states' ability to enforce sanctions? How can cryptocurrency businesses and financial institutions build a sanctions compliance response to thwart sanctioned actors and conform with regulatory expectations?

TRM Talks Crypto and Sanctions with two people that have the answers - OFAC’s Head of Enforcement Lawrence Scheinert and Former Treasury Official and Sanctions expert Eric Lorber of K2 Integrity.

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about

The state of Wyoming is known as the Wild West - a land of wide open spaces, the nation's most iconic national parks, and rodeo broncin' bucks. But Wyoming, over the last few years, has become known for something else - cryptocurrency. So how has Wyoming become the new frontier for financial innovation? It could be a forward leaning approach to chartering "crypto banks," favorable legislation that provides legal clarity around cryptocurrency, or the safe and sound banking environment for crypto-businesses?   

It is likely all of the above plus a savvy group of regulators, state senators and industry leaders coming together to make the Cowboy State the Crypto State. TRM Talks is joined by that group -  Albert Forkner, Wyoming State Banking Commissioner, Wyoming State Senator Chris Rothfuss, Co-Chair of the Wyoming Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology and Digital Innovation and David Kinitsky, President and CEO of Kraken Financial.  

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about

On January 6, 2021, the storming of the United States Capitol by a mix of rioters, hooligans, and militants, bent on upending the Democratic process, shined a spotlight on the already growing threat of Domestic Extremism. Domestic Extremism, motivated by an array of grievances, ideologies, and white supremacy is what the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called, in 2020, “the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland.”

Who is the radical right? How do they use social media? How are they financed and why is Bitcoin, according to white supremacist Richard Spencer, “the currency of the alt-right?” Watch this TRM Talk as we explore the threat of Domestic Extremism with Former Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Mary McCord and Professor Megan Squire, a Senior Fellow at Southern Poverty Law Center and one of the foremost experts on the radical right.

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about

The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS), for years, has been the tip of the spear for financial fraud investigations.  

But in 2020, the IRS doubled down creating the Fraud Enforcement Office (OFE) focused on rooting out tax evasion, abusive tax avoidance scams and other malicious activity including the use of cryptocurrency to facilitate fraudulent activity. The OFE, part of IRS's Small Business/Self Employed Division, is leading the charge in holding fraudsters, tax cheats, scammers, and money launderers accountable. 

In this episode, TRM Talks to Eric Hylton, IRS Commissioner of the Small Business/Self Employed Division and Carolyn Schenck, IRS Fraud Counsel, on how they are leveraging financial expertise across the IRS and around the world to combat cryptocurrency-related fraud.  

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. 

Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about

The concerns swirling around unhosted or self-hosted wallets and FinCEN's recent notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on the topic have captivated and consumed the cryptocurrency industry and regulators around the world. Unhosted wallets provoke questions of privacy and security at the heart of the promise of cryptocurrency.    

In this episode, TRM Talks with Former DOJ Money Laundering Chief and Celo Compliance Head Jai Ramaswamy, author of How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Unhosted Wallets, and FinCEN Deputy Director Michael Mosier on unhosted wallets and the challenges of threading the needle between privacy and financial integrity in crypto regulation.  

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. 

Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about

The 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) contains the most significant anti-money laundering legislation in decades and signals a seismic shift in the relationship between law enforcement, financial institutions and regulators. Not only does the NDAA require businesses to provide critical beneficial ownership information to regulators, but the legislation redefines currency to include crypto for purposes of its anti-money laundering regime.

What does the NDAA mean for the cryptocurrency space and for your business?  TRM Talks to Former Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Andrew Eck and crypto legal legend Carol Van Cleef about what the NDAA means for crypto.

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about

Unhosted wallets, the travel rule, and DeFi, oh my!  The Biden Administration enters the cryptocurrency fray in an important moment for government and industry.  If this is the decade of crypto, what should we expect from the new administration?

Watch this TRM Talk with Kristin Smith, Executive Director of the Blockchain Association and Jerry Brito, Executive Director of Coin Center as we discuss how the Biden Administration is likely to view digital assets in an ever-changing landscape. We will discuss filling critical appointments, key policy positions, and everything else you should expect on cryptocurrency from the new occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

How in the world did the Department of Justice and the IRS seize $1 billion in Bitcoin? What happens now to the largest seizure of cryptocurrency in history? How do the very best agents and prosecutors conduct these complex investigations into webs of financial transactions that span the globe?  

Tune into this episode of TRM Talks with former Assistant United States Attorney Zia Faruqui, IRS-CI Special Agent Chris Janczewski, and other special guests!  

They are the dream team that investigated and prosecuted the most important cryptocurrency cases in recent history.  They disrupted North Korean cybercriminal hacking team Lazarus Group, took down the largest darknet marketplace for child exploitation Welcome to Video and seized millions of dollars in cryptocurrency headed to terrorist groups Hamas, al-Qaeda and Isis.  

This team provides some inside baseball on what it takes to investigate and prosecute the biggest cryptocurrency cases.  

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. 

Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about

This month, the US Department of Justice published an 83-page Enforcement Framework.  The Report gives a detailed look at legitimate uses of cryptocurrencies, the risks of illicit activity, and federal enforcement challenges and strategies.

In this TRM Talk with the Chair of the Crypto Enforcement Framework Task Force and former Associate Deputy Attorney General Sujit Raman, Jessie K. Liu, former United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, and Supervisory Special Agent Greg Monahan, Cyber Crimes Unit, IRS-Criminal Investigation, we discuss DOJ's new cryptocurrency enforcement framework, the ways in which the interagency focuses on cryptocurrency and how the interagency works in close coordination in the cryptocurrency space as highlighted by a number of recent investigations and enforcement actions.