NEW DELHI: Crimes related to cryptocurrencies amounted to 953.70 crore so far, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament on Monday. Replying to a query by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam DMK MP Velusamy P, Sitharaman said the financial action force task FATF has made several amendments to mitigate the growing use of virtual assets for money laundering and terrorist financing. The DMK MP had raised concerns on the growing use of criminal activities using virtual assets, asking how the government was detecting and monitoring such activities. The finance minister told Parliament about the public notices circulated by the Reserve Bank of India RBI in this regard, stating that the Centre as well as RBI, have often cautioned people regarding cryptocurrencies. RBI has been cautioning users, holders and traders of Virtual Currencies VCs vide public notices from 2013, that dealing in VCs is associated with potential economic, financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks, replied Sitharaman. She added the FATF has adopted several methods to prevent growing illegitimate activities from cryptocurrencies. RBI has also advised its regulated entities to continue to carry out customer due diligence processes for transactions in VCs, in line with regulations governing standards for Know Your Customer KYC , Anti Money Laundering AML , Combating of Financing of Terrorism CFT , obligations under Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA , 2002, etc, added Sitharaman.
Crime amounting to 953.70 crore including the arrest of five persons and six prosecution complaints have been filed to date before the special court, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 PMLA . Enforcement Directorate is investigating several cases under the provisions of PMLA and foreign exchange management act, 1999 FEMA related to cryptocurrencies, the finance minister added.
