Prominent Risk Management platform TRM Labs has appointed former Treasury Official Ari Redbord to a critical role. Former Treasury official Redboard, well known for his work on the Treasury’s FinCEN taskforce, will now represent TRM as its head of government and legal affairs. This appointment is the latest move by the Federal government in their bid to regulate Cryptocurrency platforms.
The Co-founder of TRM, Esteban Castaño, said that the firm’s data could be essential in the Treasury’s ongoing war with financial fraud. He went on to say that TRM could offer valuable insight into the risks that pervade cryptocurrency markets, protecting consumers and businesses.
Ari Redbord’s previous work at the Treasury included working as an advisor for the undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. While his work with FinCEN focussed primarily on cryptocurrency markets and similar concerns, making him more than qualified for the position at TRM.
Appeasing The Treasury?
When asked whether Redbord’s appointment to head of government and legal affairs indicated a shift in favor of government regulation, Castaño became defensive and acted quickly to quash any doubts over the position. He insisted that TRM’s focus would not be on “being the long-arm of the law” and emphasized that the move would mean less government regulation of cryptocurrency platforms. :
“…a company like TRM allows for less regulation, quite frankly, by allowing governments around the world to be more comfortable than they can identify suspicious activity and get those bad actors out of this.”
The Treasury and other regulators have made numerous moves in recent weeks that would enable greater control of cryptocurrency platforms by the Federal Government. This push is part of a well-documented effort to combat money-laundering and other financial crimes on cryptocurrency platforms. The crypto community will likely see Redbord’s appointment as the US is coming one step closer to achieving that goal.
