NY Senator Builds Framework for Crypto Crimes

Kevin Thomas, a New York state senator, has introduced a new bill amendment that would establish some offenses related to rug pulls and other frauds with virtual tokens as official crimes, a report says.

The bill, SB S8839, would call for defining, penalizing and criminalizing frauds targeted at developers and projects that would defraud crypto investors.

The bill, aligning with the spirit of the blockchain and fighting fraud, would provide prosecutors a clear framework against various crypto crimes.

The bill would reportedly add a law amendment applying rug-pull charges to developers selling over 10% of the tokens within five years of the date of the last sale of the tokens.

The bill targets private key fraud, which means disclosing or misusing another person’s private keys without their consent beforehand.

The bill would reportedly also work on charging developers with fraudulent failure to disclose an interest in digital tokens if they don’t disclose personal crypto holdings on their website openly on the landing pages.

The report notes that the bill has been under committee review to determine if it’s eligible for floor consideration.

The report says two House members, Norma Torres of California and Rick Crawford of Arkansas, have also recently put out legislation to cut down financial risks related to how El Salvador has adopted bitcoin as its legal tender.

Crypto has been seeing various attempts to regulate it from governments worldwide.

PYMNTS wrote that Australia’s financial regulator, the Prudential Risk Authority, is looking at regulating crypto within the next few years, with a target set for 2025.

Read more: Australian Regulators Eye Crypto Regulation by 2025

The policy roadmap by the regulator says activities associated with crypto “are still relatively limited in Australia, the potential scale and risks of such activities could become significant over time.”

There will likely be rules set up to establish crypto guidelines for all regulated financial entities, according to the documents, and activities to face regulation will include “investment in crypto-assets, lending linked with crypto-assets, issuance of crypto-assets, and providing services associated with crypto-assets for customers.”