McNabb in the News (4-3-06)

C.M. Choate, an associate at McNabb Associates, has been quoted in April’s Security Management Magazine in an article on transnational money laundering.

But some experts note that the industry is trying to address these risks. Chris Choate, an associate with global criminal defense firm McNabb Associates, says he’s seen the high-profile online currency organizations taking proactive steps to prevent their services from being abused, such as conducting investigations on people opening accounts.

They have also established the Global Digital Currency Association (GDCA), which ranks member businesses “on four levels of security and trustworthiness,” Choate says. “They’re really trying for self regulation, because they don’t want governments telling them what to do,” Choate explains.
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Choate says that concern over widespread money laundering or the abuse of online currencies by other criminals or terrorists seems to be “more hype than reality,” and that the government is concerned because it’s new, easy to use, and has the potential for anonymity. He says that apart from the few investigations mentioned in the government’s report, he’s not aware of any larger problem. “Maybe there’s some smoke but not necessarily any fire,” he says.^[1]

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[1] Peter Piazza, Technofile: Pinning Down Online Money Laundering, Security Management, Apr. 2006.