The Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force announced that it held a regional workshop in Cairo on virtual assets and the laundering of illicit proceeds from trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants. The workshop focused on risks linked to virtual assets and virtual asset service providers, the implementation of FATF Recommendation 15 and related standards, and emerging criminal typologies involving organized criminal groups. The event was organized with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa, the Egyptian Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Combating Unit, and Egypt's National Coordinating Committee for Combating and Preventing Illegal Migration and Trafficking in Persons, with support from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. About 50 representatives from law enforcement authorities, prosecution offices, financial intelligence units, international and regional organizations, and blockchain analytics platforms attended. Discussions covered cryptocurrency-based laundering methods, blockchain investigations, digital wallets and tracing techniques, as well as the use of Web3 gaming environments, decentralized finance, stablecoins, decentralized exchanges and other blockchain-based ecosystems to facilitate illicit financial flows and organized criminal activity.

Original source Back to tracker