Sustainably Investing in Digital Assets Globally

Introduction

My article “Is This Bribe Deductible? Tax Implications of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” in Tax Notes International on December 17, 2007, rendered the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)—via tax treaties—enforceable around the world.

In 2017, the year Bitcoin's price surged from $1,000 to $20,000 in a single year, increasing 20‐fold, I received an invitation to make a presentation concerning FCPA compliance by a technology company based in Ireland—My Compliance Office.¹ While preparing my presentation for My Compliance Office, I stumbled upon three U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) cases—Hansa, AlphaBay, and BTC‐e—that alerted me to the existence of cryptocurrencies.

These three cases led me to research cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchain technology. I found out that blockchain technology's main disruptive element in the global commercial and economic ecosystem was its ability to eliminate the necessity to trust intermediaries—such as banks—to certify a financial transaction.

During 2017, I began writing articles and special reports for Bloomberg, Tax Notes International, FCPA Blog, and PV Magazine and a monthly column for Cointelegraph, a leading cryptocurrency publication published in 11 languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish) with a focus on the tax, regulatory, and sustainability aspects of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, hoping that I could be a voice ...