來源：彭博
作者：Ben Bain、David McLaughlin
編譯：金色財經 Golder
美國政府正在組建一個全新的工作小組，旨在保護消費者免受金融欺詐。事實上，隨著加密貨幣市場逐漸變得炙手可熱，現在已經成為了公眾資金安全的最大威脅之一。
顯然，川普政府已經開始關注加密貨幣風險問題。本周三（7月11日），該專項工作組在華盛頓宣布成立，他們表示主要的關注焦點將會放在那些針對老年人的投資計劃和洗錢犯罪活動——包括虛擬代幣。
美國司法部、證券交易委員會和商品期貨交易委員會正在加大對比特幣和其他加密貨幣相關騙局的打擊力度，政府官員也不斷提醒投資者關注加密貨幣投資的潛在風險。
目前，唐納德•川普總統已經簽署了一項行政命令，要求該專項工作組由美國司法部長官，成員組織分別來自美國證券交易委員會，聯邦貿易委員會和消費者金融保護局等機構。該工作組的首要任務，就是打擊“網絡欺詐”和“數字貨幣欺詐”。
雖然奧巴馬政府在2008年金融危機之後成立了類似的特別工作組，但似乎收效不大，因此川普決定推出自己的工作小組，並且在其簽署的行政命令中要求該工作組為調查工作提供指導，同時還要進一步改善政府機構之間的合作關係。
在華盛頓舉行的新聞發布會上，美國司法部副檢察長羅德•羅森斯坦（ROD ROSENSTEIN）表示：
“一些企業及其員工的欺詐行為，已經對美國金融市場，醫療保健市場，以及其他行業造成了毀滅性影響，對美國公民造成了傷害。”
羅德•羅森斯坦補充稱，他希望機構能夠更好地配合協調相關調查工作，避免問題堆積。此外，該工作組還將評估如何對企業違規行為執行罰款。羅德•羅森斯坦表示，成立專項工作組的目的是為了讓企業有動力配合調查，同時鼓勵他們自願報送不當行為。
2008年金融危機之後，美國成立了消費者金融保護局（CFPB），旨在更好地保護人們免受掠奪性抵押貸款和信用卡濫用合約風險的影響。但現在，川普政府正試圖徹底改革這個機構。事實上，消費者金融保護局已經成為了美國政治圈內最具分裂性的政府機構之一，民主黨認為該機構是最好的消費者保護監管機構，而共和黨卻認為消費者金融保護局已經淪為政府過度擴張的堡壘。
附 彭博社原文報導如下：
Wire： Bloomberg News （BN） Date： Jul 12 2018 0：18：57
Crypto Crime a Focus of Trump’s New Task Force on Consumer Fraud
By Ben Bain and David McLaughlin
In forming a new task force to protect consumers from fraud， the Trump administration made clear that one of the greatest threats to the public is just emerging： red-hot markets for crypto coins．
The inclusion of virtual tokens -- along with traditional crimes like money laundering and investment schemes targeting the elderly -- as a focus of a panel announced Wednesday is the latest sign of Washington’s concern over digital currencies．
The Justice Department， the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are increasingly focusing their resources on scams tied to Bitcoin and other tokens， and government officials have requently warned investors about potential dangers．
The new task force is led by the Justice Department and consists of agencies including the SEC， the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau， according to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump． It cited “cyber fraud” and “digital currency fraud” as targets of the group’s work．
While the Obama administration formed a similar task force in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis， Trump’s decision to create his own version allows his administration to direct its focus． In his executive order， Trump tasked the group with providing guidance for investigations and with recommending how to improve cooperation among various government agencies．
“Fraud committed by companies and their employees has a devastating impact on American citizens in the financial markets， the health care sector， and elsewhere，“ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said at a press briefing in Washington．
In potentially good news for corporations， Rosenstein added that agencies would seek to better coordinate their various probes to avoid “piling on，” or assessing several fines on a single company for the same violation． He said the goal is to give firms an incentive to cooperate with investigations and voluntarily report misconduct．
The move jibes with comments Rosenstein made in May when he said that the practice of hitting corporations with multiple enforcement actions “can deprive a company of the benefits of certainty and finality ordinarily available through a full and final settlement．” He’s also questioned the value of corporate penalties in deterring wrongdoing by individuals． The creation of the task force comes as the Trump administration is moving to overhaul the CFPB， an agency formed after financial crisis to better protect people from predatory mortgage lending and abusive credit card contracts． The CFPB has become one of the most politically divisive agencies in Washington， hailed as a regulatory crown jewel of consumer protection by Democrats while maligned by Republicans as a bastion of government overreach．
責任編輯：何凱玲
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