US Lawmakers Question FinCEN on Terrorist Use of Facebook's Libra

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives questioned Financial Crime Enforcement Network director Kenneth Blanco about Facebook's planned cryptocurrency Thursday.

Representatives Emanuel Cleaver, II, Trey Hollingsworth, Bill Foster and French Hill held a briefing with members of the House Financial Services Committee, discussing the Libra project with Blanco, who heads up FinCEN, the U.S. Treasury Department's anti-money-laundering wing.

"Before we allow such a giant corporation to begin processing millions to billions of financial transactions, we have to study these issues and ensure we have the tools and guardrails in place to deter terrorists, extremists, and/or enemies from utilizing such a platform to do harm to our nation."

While the release did not reveal what Blanco's views on Libra are, or whether or how FinCEN intends to oversee the project, it did say that Cleaver's questions focused on Libra and Calibra, a new Facebook subsidiary that will develop digital wallets and other services for the cryptocurrency.

Calibra registered as a money services business with FinCEN earlier this year.

Broadly, "Nefarious actors" are finding new ways to conduct illicit financial activities, Cleaver said in the statement, citing cryptocurrencies and other new marketplaces as tools these actors can adapt.

Thursday's briefing comes amid wide bipartisan backlash to Facebook's cryptocurrency plan, which was formally unveiled last week.

The full House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Libra next month, a day after the Senate Banking Committee holds its own.

Cleaver has long been concerned with potentially illegal activities conducted with cryptocurrencies.

According to the release, he has called on the Bitcoin Foundation and the Chamber of Digital Commerce to find ways of preventing extremist groups from using cryptocurrencies.