LAB Radio Ep 77 – Lourdes Miranda

Money Launderers Beware

Cryptocurrency Analyst and Financial Crimes Investigator, Lourdes Miranda joins us for episode 77 on LAB Radio.

Lourdes’ expertise lies in her years working from a compliance and financial crimes angle. Her knowledge of the Bank Secrecy Act led her to a career in the intelligence community, primarily the CIA. She knows the ins and outs of how money launderers operate. So when she was approached to join, admittedly she didnt know much about cryptocurrencies. That didnt bother the Agency one bit. She told their cyber security teams, if they taught her how crypto worked, she’d show them how it was being used to launder illegal proceeds.

Lourdes speaks to and teaches both local and federal law enforcement communities across the country. She also consults banks and financial institutions. More recently Lourdes tells us about an interaction with a Bank and a Bitcoin ATM operator. The advice she gives seems obvious to me, but it just goes to show the Banks disparate view of this asset class.

We further discussed the future of the crypto and blockchain industry and how it will impact banks. Ultimately, Lourdes feels banks will end up going the route of the newspapers during the proliferation of internet. The small banks react the slowest and are most vulnerable, but also have an advantage the bigger banks don’t. They posses the agility big banks can’t. So if a Credit Union or small bank decides to take a proactive approach they might actually avoid extinction. Sadly, these institutions dont realize they’re eventually going to lose their customers to crypto exchanges as they add more services and products, with lower fees.

Lourdes and I also have differing opinions on whether cryptocurrency illegal activity will increase or decrease. Let’s just say, we agree to disagree, but we both might be right. You’ll just have to listen and give us your opinion.

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