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Pull this post and talk to lawyers if you haven't already.

Depending on where you're based you'll have legal obligations that'll define what you should be doing at this point. This may well involve lawyers, your regulators and the police.

Some countries make it a criminal offence if you let a criminal know that you suspect them of money laundering or similar offences (this is known as "tipping off") so you should be very very careful about what you're disclosing both to your users and the general public.



Just wanted to +1 on this - this is a fairly severe offence in the UK


Thanks for weighing in. I'm based in the US. I am going to proceed along the path of openness for now.


I'm based in the US

You should still pull this post and talk to lawyers.


Yeah, sorry, I wasn't clear: I'm pursuing openness because I believe in openness, not because I'm based in the US. I am glad to learn about this potential legal ramification, however.


This.

This is one of the reasons that PayPal will lock accounts without giving a reason why--it's potentially criminal for them to tell you why!


And that's a regrettable state of affairs, if you ask me.


If you tell people they're doing something illegal, they might stop before they're caught and sentenced to life in prison. And if we don't fill up the for-profit prisons, the lobbyist overlords won't be pleased.


Can you provide any specific examples where, acting in good faith, someone was never-the-less prosecuted under such laws?




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