Poloniex bereikt schikking van $7.6M wegens overtredingskosten

• Poloniex zou gebruikers uit beperkte landen zoals Iran, Cuba en Soedan hebben toegestaan om de uitwisseling te gebruiken.
• OFAC said the $7.6 million will be used to settle the exchange’s violation case.

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Reports released by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control revealed that crypto exchange Poloniex has agreed to a $7.6 million settlement relating to more than 65,000 suspected violations of numerous sanctions programs. US prosecutors and civil investigators have been focusing on cryptocurrency companies for years for offering “illegal services” and violating laws meant to stop illegal conduct.

Poloniex allegedly allowed users from the Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria to trade up to $15 million in total between January 2014 and November 2019. Although Poloniex began operations in January 2014, it did not implement a sanctions compliance program until May 2015. According to a Treasury document, het nalevingsprogramma had ook geen terugwerkende kracht, waardoor gebruikers van het netwerk uit gesanctioneerde staten het konden blijven gebruiken.

Volgens de OFAC,

Although Poloniex made efforts to identify and restrict accounts with a nexus to Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Crimea, and Syria pursuant to its compliance program, certain customers apparently located in these jurisdictions continued to use Poloniex’s platform to engage in online digital asset-related transactions.

Poloniex, dat was kort eigendom by US crypto company Circle, is currently run by a group of organizations, including Tron’s Justin Sun. In 2022, Poloniex and crypto exchange Huobi announced plans to launch a partnership that would help boost the Huobi ecosystem.

This news comes as US regulators continue to crackdown on crypto exchanges. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently sued Binance and its CEO and founder, Changpeng Zhao, for running an “illegal” exchange and having a “sham” compliance program.

The CFTC accused Binance, its CEO, and its former top compliance employee of “willful evasion” of US law “while engaging in a calculated strategy of regulatory arbitrage to their commercial benefit”.

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