Legislative Yuan passes the third reading of the "Anti-Money Laundering Act" amendment! Selling exchange KYC accounts is illegal and punishable by up to 30 million.

The Legislative Yuan passed amendments to Articles 15-1, 15-2, and 16 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act yesterday to prevent criminal groups from collecting a large number of people's financial institution accounts, virtual currency accounts, or third-party payment accounts. It also regulates that no one shall deliver or provide the aforementioned accounts and accounts to others without a legitimate reason.

Update on 5/22: Responses from various exchanges to KYC selling behavior.

Amendment to Anti-Money Laundering Act Passes Third Reading

The Ministry of Justice's press release stated that the recent amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering Act was prompted by the sophisticated division of labor among criminal groups who systematically collect dummy accounts. When members of criminal groups involved in collecting accounts are caught before any criminal proceeds are transferred, there is a dilemma where there is no legal basis for punishment.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Justice also mentioned that due to the difficulty in proving the subjective criminal intent of those providing or collecting accounts, criminal groups have been brazenly using dummy accounts, making it challenging for law enforcement to identify criminal activities and recover illicit gains.

Therefore, in order to block the illicit financial flows of fraud rings, the amendment takes a direction of "comprehensive prevention" and "treating the root cause."

Key Points of the Amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering Act

According to the contents of the amendment, Article 15-1 stipulates that in the future, individuals who collect accounts opened by others at financial institutions, or accounts applied for at virtual currency platforms, exchange businesses, or third-party payment service providers without legitimate reasons may face imprisonment for up to 5 years, detention, or a fine of up to NT$30 million.

Additionally, Article 15-2 specifies that individuals are not allowed to provide or deliver accounts to others without legitimate reasons. To balance the severity of penalties, violators of this provision will first receive a warning from the police, and if they commit the offense again within 5 years after the warning, they will be subject to criminal penalties of up to 3 years of imprisonment. However, directly providing or selling 3 or more accounts in one act will lead to immediate criminal penalties.

Selling Exchange KYC Accounts Is Illegal

A well-known financial podcast, Bill's Financial Kitchen, mentioned on its program on 5/4 that the Taiwan crypto community influencer KoCoinTrust offers KYC registration services for exchanges, where one can purchase a set of exchange accounts that have passed KYC for $55 without providing any information.

However, based on the aforementioned law, providing KYC services or buying KYC accounts is now considered illegal.

Responses of Various Exchanges to KYC Account Sales Updated 5/22

• Binance: Upon receiving user reports, Binance immediately requested the cessation of such activities. Binance does not support nor encourage the sale of KYC accounts, to avoid legal violations and subsequent triggering of risk control measures that may result in account or asset freezes.
• OKEx: Previously, OKEx had requested KoCoinTrust to stop selling OKEx KYC accounts and is currently not cooperating with them.
• Bitget: Stated that KoCoinTrust's actions are not officially sanctioned or approved, and indicated on IG stories that such behavior is illegal.
• Bybit: Regarding KYC issues, Bybit has not authorized any cooperation with KoCoinTrust and does not advocate any actions that violate local laws and regulations. Bybit will communicate with KoCoinTrust to immediately cease such activities, or else they will suspend other forms of cooperation.