Irina Heaver, a crypto lawyer at NeosLegal, said that banks have incurred over “$400 billion” in fines for compliance breaches and “caused the 2008 financial crisis,” yet cryptocurrency is often labeled as a “scam.” Heaver made this statement during her talk at Binance Blockchain Week.
“I have a little bit of beef with traditional financial institutions,” said Heaver. “Banks have been breaching compliance rules and regulations for years. Just in the last 20 years, more than $400 billion of fines were imposed on banks throughout every jurisdiction. Banks caused the 2008 global financial crisis, right? And people are calling crypto projects scams or trying to give us a bad name.”
According to data collected from Chainalysis and the United Nations, traditional finance accounts for over 99.97% of global money laundering activities, while cryptocurrency makes up only 0.03%.
A report indicates that $300 billion is laundered annually through the United States, accounting for 15-30% of all global money laundering. In 2020 alone, approximately $227.8 million was laundered in the U.S. Furthermore, the most prominent money laundering case in the U.S. involved Wachovia Bank, which facilitated illicit transactions totaling $380 billion under the guise of a drug cartel.
The report highlights enforcement challenges, noting that only 990 offenders were recorded out of 76,538 cases, illustrating significant gaps in the prosecution and tracking of money laundering activities.
Heaver is a lawyer and partner at NeosLegal with over 20 years of experience. Since 2016, she has advised more than 250 Bitcoin, crypto, and Web3 projects, focusing on token launches, fundraising, and market expansion in Dubai/UAE. She has worked with venture capitalists (VCs), investors, governments, and regulators.
Binance Blockchain Week is a conference that brings together innovators, founders, investors, regulators, and officials to discuss the future of blockchain and Web3. The theme of this year’s conference is “Momentum.” According to the event’s website: “Momentum propels our industry, not only taking us through challenges but also leading us to our biggest achievements.”
