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by closewith 1435 days ago
It seems that the criminal complaint is related to money laundering (ie concealing the true source and/or beneficial owner of the funds) rather than tax evasion. If that is the case, then tax compliance is expected (as the point of money laundering is to produce a clean post-tax cash flow).

I have no opinion as to the legitimacy of the criminal accusations, but having correctly paid tax liabilities would not be a defence.
1 comments
iskander 1435 days ago
Right, it seems that they want a KYC list for everyone who bought his art, which isn't possible given the medium. Some announcement of that policy would be better than letting it become known through surprise enforcement.
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closewith 1435 days ago
> Right, it seems that they want a KYC list for everyone who bought his art, which isn't possible given the medium.

If that's true, then the medium does not appear to be a lawful method for transactions above €10,000 in the EU.

> Some announcement of that policy would be better than letting it become known through surprise enforcement.

AML 5 - the Directive which introduced this regulation - is not exactly a secret. Especially if transacting through a company, it is very difficult to argue ignorance as a defence to non-compliance.

Traditionally, dealers and auction houses would require and assist with KYC/AML compliance, which was part of the value they offered. Relying on non-compliant permissionless contracts does not absolve the vendor of their responsibilities.

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iskander 1435 days ago
I don't think the mint prices for any works by shvembldr have ever exceeded €10k. I looked up the mint price for The Blocks of Art and it was 0.1eth (maybe $300 at the time), the closest I could find was the high point of an auction for Alien Insects was 3eth (~$9k at the time).

In addition to primary sales, there are also royalty payments for secondary sales but I don't think any of his pieces have ever sold for €200k (which would be required for a €10k royalty).

...but maybe this goes against the spirit of AML-D5 since popular generative art still drives many millions of dollars/euros in sales, but often split across smaller transactions (since a collection may contain hundred to thousands of individual pieces).

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pjc50 1435 days ago
It seems like he took it out of coinbase in a lump sum, which resulted in a single large inexplicable transaction.
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iskander 1435 days ago
A transfer between your own accounts is pretty straightforward to declare, it's you on both sides.
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