Crypto.com Hires Financial Crimes Expert From Western Union

Financial crimes compliance departments are common at financial institutions such as banks, money-services businesses and casinos, which are required to devote substantial resources to preventing and detecting abuses ranging from money laundering to sanctions evasion and corruption. Many of the same laws apply to cryptocurrency companies.

Mr. DeVille, who will be based in Denver, brings a deep knowledge of Washington’s regulatory apparatus to Crypto.com. His appointment comes amid a spree of hires by some of the biggest companies in the cryptocurrency industry.

The cryptocurrency industry has been especially eager to hire regulatory and compliance experts with government connections, part of an effort to shape impending efforts by officials to craft policies governing the cryptocurrency market.

In addition to his government experience, Mr. DeVille comes to Crypto.com with know-how gained from the private sector. He most recently was the global head of financial crimes compliance at

Western Union Co.

, one of the world’s largest money services businesses, where he built a 2,000 person financial crimes compliance team and helped the company navigate two court-ordered monitorships, according to the Monday announcement.

Before joining Western Union, Mr. DeVille was an official at the U.S. Treasury Department’s financial crimes watchdog, known as the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, where he headed the agency’s office of compliance and enforcement.

Earlier in his career, he was a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, where he worked on organized crime cases.

Write to Dylan Tokar at dylan.tokar@wsj.com