JAKARTA The leading US crypto trading company, Kraken, must pay a fine to the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) of US$362,000 (around Rp5.7 billion).
Kraken was hit by fines after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found weak stock exchange surveillance of Iranian users potentially avoiding US sanctions.
Due to the error, Kraken agreed to pay the fine. OFAC itself explains that it will continue to impose fines on crypto exchanges in the event of a violation of the US sanctions system.
According to the release of OFAC, Kraken agreed "to complete potential civil responsibility," which could come along with possible violations of regulations related to Iran's regulation of transactions and sanctions.
Not only that, Kraken also agreed to "invest" 100,000 US dollars in additional sanction compliance controls, including training its staff and implementing technical controls to assist in sanctions detection.
According to a CryptoPotato report, although Kraken has a sanctions compliance and anti-money laundering program, the exchange processes 826 transactions, totaling about 1,680,577.10 US dollars, on behalf of users who "appear" to be located in Iran. Cryptopotato first reported on the SEC investigation on the exchange in June 2022.
The report explained that the transaction was carried out between October 14, 2015, and June 29, 2019. This means the regulator is carrying out a thorough work on the history of exchange transactions to avoid possible avoidance of US sanctions. According to OFAC, Kraken committed 826 "real violations" of Iranian Transaction and Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.FR.
Therefore, Kraken itself implemented an IP address blocking automatically related to Iranian users. The company also implemented a number of blockchain monitoring and analysis tools after realizing the problems it caused and informing authorities.
Kraken's commitment to following the rules to tighten surveillance prevented him from a maximum fine of US$272 million from US regulators. Apart from Kraken, OFAC also sanctioned other crypto exchanges such as BitPay of around US$500,000, Bitgo worth US$98,000, and Bittrex of around US$53 million for alleged violations of US government sanctions rules.
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