Crypto-Critic Peter Schiff Forced to Liquidate His Bank Amid Allegations of Fraud, Money Laundering

To paraphrase the Bard, “Irony, thy name is Peter Schiff.”

Schiff, the economist and notorious crypto-skeptic, is liquidating his Puerto Rico-based bank, Euro Pacific International Bank. This comes a month after financial authorities shut down the bank’s operations for its alleged involvement in money laundering and offshore tax evasion. 

As it happens, Schiff admitted that he had reached a settlement to liquidate his bank based in San Juan, as the climax of the lengthy conflict with the banking regulators on the Caribbean island, the New York Times’ Frances Robles reported on August 9.

According to the report, the regulators have acknowledged in the deal that Schiff’s bank did indeed have cash at its disposal, despite declaring it insolvent earlier.

In a statement back in July Schiff disputed the regulators’ assessment, he claimed, “our compliance is so rigorous, and we close accounts so quickly.” He said that he never accepted customers linked to cryptocurrencies, cannabis, or other sectors. 

Schiff has long called crypto a “fraud” and more than once laughably compared blockchain technology to chain letters. 

However, the sudden closure of Schiff’s bank in Puerto Rico in July prompted a fresh round of discourse concerning the resiliency of Bitcoin in the face of legal authority.

Perhaps the biggest irony is that while Schiff said his bank “refused to accept customers linked to cryptocurrencies,” perhaps he should have

.