CryptoNow
  • Home
  • Market
  • Technology
  • Business
  • Blockchain
  • Regulation
  • Reviews
No Result
View All Result
CryptoNow
  • Home
  • Market
  • Technology
  • Business
  • Blockchain
  • Regulation
  • Reviews
No Result
View All Result
CryptoNow
No Result
View All Result

Crypto Exchange KuCoin Violated Anti-Money Laundering Laws

March 27, 2024
in Business, News, Regulation
A A
/ Freepik

/ Freepik

Dalintis FacebookDalintisShare on Twitter
U.S. federal prosecutors charged crypto exchange KuCoin and two of its founders with violating anti-money laundering laws on Tuesday, saying the exchange operated in the U.S., lied to at least one of its investors about operating in the U.S. and failed to both register with U.S. government entities and maintain an anti-money laundering program.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in an indictment that KuCoin and founders Chun Gan and Ke Tang operated KuCoin as a money-transmitting business with over 30 million customers but did not implement a know-your-customer (KYC) or AML program until 2023 – and even then, its KYC program did not apply to existing customers. Neither Gan nor Tang were arrested, the DOJ said in a press release.

The DOJ indictment said that KuCoin did not register with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as a money services business.

Because it did not implement any KYC or AML programs, KuCoin “made itself available to be used, and in fact was used, as a vehicle for laundering the proceeds of suspicious and criminal activities, including proceeds from sanctions violations, darknet markets, and malware, ransomware, and fraud schemes,” the indictment said.

The indictment pointed to allegations that KuCoin “indirectly received a total of more than $3.2 million worth of cryptocurrency from Tornado Cash,” a sanctioned crypto mixer. KuCoin was mentioned in criminal filings against two of Tornado Cash’s developers, Alexey Pertsev (whose trial in The Netherlands began earlier Tuesday) and Roman Storm (who’s set to go on trial in the U.S. later this year).

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed a suit against KuCoin Tuesday, alleging the company, which offers both spot and futures trading services, did not register as a futures commission merchant, swap execution facility or designated contract market. Its suit also charged that KuCoin didn’t implement the CFTC’s equivalent of a KYC program.

The CFTC is seeking monetary penalties, trading and registration bans and an injunction, while the DOJ is seeking forfeiture alongside criminal penalties.

In a statement, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Darren McCormack called KuCoin “an alleged multibillion-dollar criminal conspiracy,” noting it was one of the largest crypto exchanges.

U.S. Attorney Damien Williams said in a statement that KuCoin actively tried to hide that “substantial numbers of U.S. users were trading” on its platform.

“Indeed, KuCoin allegedly took advantage of its sizeable U.S. customer base to become one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency derivatives and spot exchanges, with billions of dollars of daily trades and trillions of dollars of annual trade volume,” he said. “. As alleged, in failing to implement even basic anti-money laundering policies, the defendants allowed KuCoin to operate in the shadows of the financial markets and be used as a haven for illicit money laundering, with KuCoin receiving over $5 billion and sending over $4 billion of suspicious and criminal funds.”

KuCoin’s native token (KCS) dropped by 5% following the announcement. Bitcoin’s (BTC) price dropped 1% but has been volatile throughout the day and is trading around $70,000.

Tuesday’s actions come just months after the DOJ, CFTC and Treasury Department settled similar charges against Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume.

Edited by Aoyon Ashraf.

Source: Coindesk
Tags: Crypto exchange

Related

PENGU Eyes Another 70% Surge as Whale Accumulation and ETF Buzz Fuel Momentum

June 28, 2025

Pudgy Penguins (PENGU), the meme coin inspired by the popular NFT collection, has seen a dramatic price surge in the...

Pepe Coin Poised for 70% Rally as Large-Scale Investors Ramp Up Accumulation

June 26, 2025

Pepe Coin has faced renewed selling pressure as its price declined for the second consecutive day, reflecting waning momentum across...

Perplexity’s Comet: AI Browser Takes Flight on Windows

June 24, 2025

Perplexity is expanding the testing of its AI-powered browser, Comet, to select Windows users. This follows the initial beta release...

Bitcoin Could Soon Be Accepted as Mortgage Collateral in the U.S.

June 24, 2025

The U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is exploring the possibility of factoring cryptocurrency holdings such as Bitcoin into mortgage...

Apple Allegedly Negotiating Perplexity AI Acquisition to Boost Its AI Strategy

June 23, 2025

Apple is said to be weighing a potential bid to acquire Perplexity, an emerging player in the AI space. According...

News

Blockchain

7 Best Cryptocurrency mining servers

May 30, 2025
Interesting

Gemini Powers Bitcoin Mining with Tesla Cybertruck

June 1, 2025
Mining

The 7 Best VPNs for Secure & Efficient Crypto Mining

June 8, 2025
Coins

XRP Price Swings: Will Geopolitical Turmoil Trigger a Surge or Slump?

June 25, 2025
Asset 1CryptoNow
Categories
  • AI
  • Blockchain
  • Business
  • Coins
  • Finance
  • Interesting
  • Market
  • Mining
  • News
  • Regulation
  • Reviews
  • Technology
Tags
AI AI Browser Altcoin Android Apple Binance Binance Coin Bitcoin blockchain BTC Chainlink ChatGPT Circle Coinbase Coindesk crypto Cryptocurrency Crypto exchange DOGE Dogecoin ETF ETH Ethereum Google Halving Memecoin Meta Mining Mobile OpenAI Pepecoin pi coin pi network reviews RIOT Ripple Samsung SHIB Shiba Shiba Inu Solana Stablecoin technology TON XRP
  • Newsletter
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Technology
  • Market
  • Coins
  • News
  • Mining
  • Technology
  • Blockchain

CryptoNow.