Bitcoin Daily: NY Taps Crypto Fraud Expert As General Counsel; Matrixport Collaborates With Simplex On Card Payments

Richard Weber has been named to the position of general counsel at the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), according to an announcement from Superintendent of Financial Services Linda A. Lacewell. Weber was most recently head of Financial Crime Prevention for the Americas at UBS, spearheading all facets of sanctions, BSA and AML compliance. He also had previously served as Deutsche Bank’s head of Anti-Financial Crime for the Americas.

“Rich brings unquestioned integrity, legal acumen, and management experience to DFS,” Lacewell said in the announcement. “His extensive leadership experience and depth of legal knowledge will be vital in helping the state emerge stronger and safer from this unprecedented crisis.”

Weber served with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as chief of the Criminal Investigation Division for over five years. He led a team of more than 3,500 while there, managing complicated financial crime probes involving digital currency, among other matters. Weber led high-profile investigations into Silk Road and FIFA.

Matrixport has joined forces with payment processing company Simplex to let users use their credit and debit cards to buy certain digital currencies, Cointelegraph reported. The tie-up supports the use of financial products from Matrixport such as Dual Currency-USD, which allows for USD Coin and USDT stablecoin payments.

Matrixport Co-Founder and CEO John Ge said, “Dual Currency-USD is one of our most popular products as people can invest in USDT/USDC and earn returns way higher than what they can get from banks deposit and most funds. Previously, our users had to purchase USDT/USDC somewhere else and transfer it to our platform.”

Users throughout the world can now purchase seven digital currencies such as bitcoin, ripple and ether, among others, through Mastercard or Visa through the mobile app or website of the platform. Over 20 fiat currencies are supported that purchasers can use to buy digital currency, with the inclusion of the British pound, U.S. dollar and Euro.