A Former Prosecutor on How Fintechs Become Targets, with Laurel Loomis Rimon from Jenner & Block

Laurel Loomis Rimon has spent her career on the enforcement side of fintech. As a federal prosecutor she brought the first case against a digital currency company in the US, years before Bitcoin existed. She later served as an assistant deputy enforcement director at the CFPB, and today she co-chairs the fintech and crypto assets practice at Jenner & Block and founded the firm's payments practice.

In this episode, Reggie Young talks with Laurel about how enforcement and prosecution of fintech actually work in practice. They cover what puts a company on an investigator's radar, what genuinely exposes fintechs and banks to enforcement, how regulators and prosecutors assess good faith, and how she is advising clients to navigate debanking, KYC, and a fast-moving regulatory environment.

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Chapters:
 00:00 – Cold open: the risk everyone underrates
 00:22 – Meet Laurel Loomis Rimon: DOJ, CFPB, and Jenner & Block
 02:15 – Prosecuting E-gold, the first digital currency case
 04:24 – The legal hooks before crypto law existed
 05:48 – Money transmitting becomes a baseline concern
 06:10 – What actually makes a company a target
 07:13 – Why the company is rarely the target at the start
 08:02 – Don't become the platform of choice for illicit actors
 08:25 – Regulators are consumers too
 09:39 – When the complainant is the regulator's own family
 09:57 – What fintechs worry about too much
 10:16 – The most boring risk: documentation
 12:06 – Product thinking as a compliance skill
 12:26 – How regulators assess good faith
 12:58 – Why staffing is always key, even in the age of AI
 14:18 – When growth outpaces compliance investment
 15:40 – Where debanking comes from: Operation Choke Point
 17:45 – Reputation risk and the regulatory whiplash
 21:02 – How KYC changes amid the debanking pushback
 22:25 – The executive order tension banks are caught in
 23:34 – Advising fintechs to build for the next administration
 25:41 – Where to reach Laurel

Nothing in this podcast should be construed as legal or financial advice.

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