WILLEMSTAD – Financial forensic investigator Luigi Faneyte is preparing a proposal to strengthen Curaçao’s legislation governing virtual assets, with the aim of protecting public funds received through cryptocurrency, foreign payment providers and digital asset service providers.
The proposed amendments would target the Landsverordening toezicht virtuele activa dienstverleners (LTVAD), which entered into force on July 4, 2025.
According to Faneyte, the legislation should include stronger safeguards to ensure that public revenues can only be received through officially designated and fully traceable accounts and wallets.
“Public money must always be traceable,” Faneyte said. “At any moment it should be possible to determine who received the money, who had access to it and where it ultimately ended up.”
The proposed changes would require every payment involving public funds to be fully registered and traceable from the moment it is received until it is recorded in government administration and transferred to the national treasury.
Faneyte also wants mandatory risk assessments before government institutions or entities with public responsibilities use virtual assets or foreign payment providers.
The proposal would require stronger links between invoices, bank transactions, cryptocurrency wallet movements and government accounting systems. Independent audits and periodic reporting would also form part of the proposed framework.
According to Faneyte, the changes are necessary because digital payment systems create new challenges for traditional financial oversight.
The proposal is directly connected to his ongoing investigation into financial flows within the online gaming sector. Faneyte said the forensic investigation should clarify what happened with gaming revenues in the past, while the legislative changes should prevent similar uncertainty in the future.
“The investigation must determine what happened with the revenues. The law must ensure that the population never again has to wonder where public money went,” he stated.
Faneyte said the issue is particularly important because gaming revenues were previously presented as a possible source of funding for social priorities, including a higher AOV pension for Curaçao’s elderly population.
He added that he is willing to provide his expertise, documents and research findings to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (CBCS), and other competent authorities.
According to Faneyte, tracking international crypto and payment flows requires financial, technical and legal expertise.
“My goal is not to replace the work of the authorities, but to make relevant knowledge and information available and prevent financial or digital evidence from disappearing,” he said.