Australia: Issued guidance on preventing criminal abuse of digital currencies

On 21 April 2022, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (AUSTRAC) released a guidance for businesses, especially digital currency exchange providers, to detect and prevent abuse of digital currencies. The guidance explains the risks of digital currencies and how criminals can use digital transactions to commit crimes such as money laundering, terrorism financing, tax evasion, while avoiding law enforcement. Given the expansion of digital currency use in Australia, the guidance provides information for businesses on how to detect, respond to and prevent such criminal activity.