US Treasury Dept. Says Reached 2 Multi-Million-Dollar Settlements With Crypto Exchange

CryptocurrencyWASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The US Treasury Department said in a statement on Tuesday that it has reached two settlement agreements in the amount of $24 million and $29 million with the cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex over sanctions and money laundering violations.Investigations conducted by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) found apparent violations of multiple sanctions programs and willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act’s anti-money laundering (AML) and suspicious activity report (SAR) reporting requirements, the department said in a statement.FTC: Various Crypto Scams Have Cost People Over $1 Billion Since 20214 June, 01:50 GMTThe settlements mark the first parallel enforcement action by OFAC and FinCEN, the statement said.”For years, Bittrex’s AML program and SAR reporting failures unnecessarily exposed the US financial system to threat actors,” FinCEN Acting Director Himamauli Das is quoted as saying in the statement. “Bittrex’s failures created exposure to high-risk counterparties including sanctioned jurisdictions, darknet markets and ransomware attackers.”The first $24.2 million settlement agreement covers civil liability for 116,4231 apparent violations of sanctions programs, the statement said. Deficiencies in Bittrex’s sanctions compliance procedures resulted in over $263 million in cryptocurrency transactions between March 2014 and December 2017 by individuals in Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.The second $29.2 million settlement, toward which the first payment will be credited, covers violations of the AML program and SAR requirements, the statement also said. Bittrex failed to maintain effective transaction monitoring, resulting in “significant exposure to illicit finance,” the statement said.The move marks the largest virtual currency enforcement action by OFAC to date, the statement added.The enforcement actions emphasize to the virtual currency industry the importance of implementing sanctions compliance controls and meeting federal obligations, according to the statement.

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