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

Podcast Episode

### Audio Player

00:00 | 26:15

**Fintech Layer Cake**  
A Former Prosecutor on How Fintechs Become Targets, with Laurel Loomis Rimon from Jenner & Block  
**Jul 14, 2026**

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.

### 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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