NFTs: a new frontier for money laundering
Description
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have seen their popularity skyrocket over the past two years with the price of tokens reaching up to $90 million. Legitimate collectors have flocked to the market where they can claim sole ownership of digital art, trading cards and even real estate. Criminals too however, have been drawn to this market attracted by immature anti-financial crime controls and plentiful naïve users. This webinar will cover what NFTs are, the different ways in which they materialise and the characteristics of users and why they might own them. Also, to assess the inherent money laundering risks and draw on case studies to illustrate how these differ from ‘real world’ money laundering risks and discuss ways in which these risks can be mitigated using regulation but also by practical cyber security and compliance fixes. The webinar will conclude by summarising the NFT ‘status quo’ and by looking ahead to what emerging risks might be on the horizon.
Content
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What are NFTs and what is the extent of their ecosystem and use?
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What are the money laundering risks of NFTs and how can these be mitigated, both practically and with regulation?
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Are there emerging money laundering risks on the NFT horizon that we should be concerned about?
Speakers
Allison OwenResearch Analyst at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) |
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Allison is a Research Analyst at RUSI’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies. Her primary research projects focus on the policy and security dimensions of cryptocurrency and new payment methods. Allison leads RUSI’s work on cryptocurrency and counter-proliferation finance, focusing on North Korea’s use of crypto to evade sanctions, and provides guidance for the private and public sector to understand and mitigate associated threats. |
Isabella ChaseResearch Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) |
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Isabella Chase is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at RUSI. At the CFCS, Isabella leads a research cluster on ‘Financial Crime Futures’ which assesses evolving AML/CFT policy frameworks, the role of technology in compliance and how inclusive financial integrity can be achieved. Her other research interests include new payment technologies, e-money, sanctions and financial crime involving high value goods such as art. |