Blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis, which recently expanded into providing KYC/AML support services to cryptocurrency businesses, has added another member to its powerful compliance team.
According to a company release, Michael Mosier, former high-ranking employee at the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the White House National Security Council, and U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), will join Chainalysis as Chief Technical Counsel.
“Mosier will be responsible for bringing legal expertise to our products, including data privacy and global anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions, policy, and government matters,” Chainalysis writes.
Mosier will be working alongside Jesse Spiro, Chainalysis’ Global Head of Policy, “who recently joined Chainalysis from Refinitiv, where he oversaw global engagement and research on threat finance.”
Mosier and Spiro will also be working with Kristofer Doucette, “on the team based in Washington, DC…focused on Chainalysis’s government business.”
Doucette is Chainalysis’s Vice President of Government Affairs, and he came to the company last year after working at the U.S. Department of the Treasury for 14 years in financial intelligence.
Chainalysis wrote recently about the widespread implications for crypto of recently adopted FATF standards for the sector, which require all crypto exchanges and platforms in member countries to identify parties to cryptocurrency transactions.
The FATF is a powerful anti-money-laundering advisory body based in Europe and comprised of 38 member countries.
While the FATF’s advisories are technically non-binding, countries refusing to enforce them risk being sanctioned.
Current KYC/AML systems at crypto exchanges, where they do exist, typically only require KYC on customers using that particular exchange, and do not require proof-of-identity from other parties.
Requiring exchanges in compliant jurisdictions to ensure the identity of all parties to a crypto trade, exchanges have claimed, entails a massive operational burden.
For the companies that can accommodate the new rules, Chainalysis is poised to provide assistance.
Other firms providing KYC/AML support to cryptocurrency and “digital asset” companies include CipherTrace, Elliptic, Neutrino, and Crystal.
Regarding his appointment, Mosier said:
“I am thrilled to join the incredible team at Chainalysis as the Chief Technical Having worked across emerging technology, financial integrity, and data privacy matters, the opportunity to bring technical-legal solutions to market to help advance Chainalysis’s mission to build trust in blockchains and help our customers meet their regulatory obligations is the perfect intersection at a seminal moment for all of those areas.”
Chainalysis CEO and Co-Founder Michael Gronager stated:
“Each of these appointments brings a wealth of financial intelligence, global policy expertise and leadership to our team that is critical to building trust among governments, cryptocurrency businesses, and financial institutions…As we anticipate major global regulatory developments over the coming months, the strength of our team will ensure all our customers are fully equipped with the technology and information they need to comply with regulation and combat money laundering in cryptocurrencies.”
According to the company, Chainalysis’ services work as follows:
“Chainalysis is able to detect criminal activity and suspicious financial connections, investigate criminal revenues, and leverage pattern recognition and open source references to identify suspicious activity across billions of cryptocurrency transactions. Chainalysis Reactor, the company’s cryptocurrency investigation software, helps law enforcement and financial institutions identify and stop bad actors using cryptocurrencies for illicit activities such as fraud, extortion, and money laundering. Chainalysis KYT (Know Your Transaction) enables cryptocurrency businesses and financial institutions to monitor large volumes of cryptocurrency activity and identify high risk transactions on a continuous basis by applying global AML standards to each transaction across all users within an organization’s user base. “