How to avoid the freezing of crypto assets to start-ups from Russia
@Cryptics
From the point of frosts of funds on the part of Poloniex, mainly Russian and Iranian projects suffer, therefore sanctions are quite probable cause. About this ForkLog magazine was told by the lawyer, managing partner of Baseley & Polyak and the founder of the International Center for Blockchain Legal Studies Tatyana-Elisa Vasilieva.
As it became known earlier, Poloniex representatives informed the founder of Russian blockbuster projects MasterCash and Soundchain Artem Abaev that the exchange no longer provides services to the Russian Federation and that he needs to close all orders and immediately withdraw funds from the trading platform. Later, representatives of the crypto exchange denied accusations that they stopped serving residents of the Russian Federation.
ForkLog magazine asked to comment on this situation experienced lawyer, managing partner Baseley&Polyak and the founder of the International Center for Blockchain Legal Studies Tatyana-Elisa Vasiliev.
"This is a signal to companies with Russian roots to carefully consider the introduction of KYC-procedures in their projects. Any US platform carries various legal risks in connection with the violation of US law. Those platforms that ignored the sanctions restrictions, in a hurry, implement the necessary procedures. Poloniex is an American company. Accordingly, Poloniex must comply with those sanctions restrictions that are set for US companies, "- said Vasilyeva.
In her opinion, until the last moment, American sanctions against Russia were not total, that is, American platforms as a whole could work with Russian business, but could not work directly or indirectly with certain legal or physical persons. However, the latest sanctions were much broader. For example, they provide for a ban on working with companies that "undermine American cybersecurity on behalf of the Russian government." Presumably, the American platforms decided that the correct way out of the situation would be to suspect everyone's banned activities.
Summing up, Vasilyeva gave recommendations to projects with Russian origin, whose funds were frozen.
"First, you need to provide evidence that there is no "sanction" money or crypto facilities in the project. If the project has established the KYC process, then provide evidence of the existence of the KYC process in the project and information about the origin of the funds of its investors/owners of the tokens. This is certainly a complicated process, so it is likely that we will have to involve an audit company to check the purity of the funds received and draft the report. "
That's it, you need to decide for which period to make such a report. Apparently, such a report should be provided for all receipts that form a frozen amount.
"Another aspect is the potential violation of laws on the protection of personal data. Obviously, disclosure of information about project investors or tokens owners is a necessary thing for the project to function as required by law. Accordingly, a separate permission to disclose the personal information of the owners of the tokens to representatives of Poloniex should not be required. However, there can be disputes. "
Also, Vasilieva noted that if the project process KYC was not built, then the situation will be much more complicated. Due diligence (English due diligence - ensuring due diligence of received funds) in the amount of frozen amounts will be required in any case. Along with the results of the diligence, it is necessary to provide the American platform with guarantees and assurances about non-violation of the sanctions legislation (of course, such guarantees should not be unfounded - it is necessary to verify compliance with each point of the sanction legislation).
Summing up, Vasilieva expressed her opinion that she really links recent events with sanctions and general hysteria in the US "around dirty money in crypto projects."
"However, I see opportunities to fight for my money - it is necessary to show the purity of the origin of the funds that came into the project. It's difficult, but, in my opinion, this is the only way. All new projects need to build KYC-processes. "
Recall, on August 24, the crypto currency exchange Poloniex unblocked all transactions of the Russian blocking startup Soundchain. However, this case was not the only one. Similar problems, according to the founder of Soundchain Artem Abaev, complained about another 20 residents of Russia.
Source: http://forklog.com/kak-izbezhat-zamorozki-kriptoaktivov-startapam-iz-rossii/