The Bittrex crypto exchange pays $ 29 million to enclose US enforcement cases

The Bittrex crypto exchange has agreed to pay $ 29 million in order to enforce enforcement cases with the US authorities due to “obvious violations” against sanctions against a large number of countries, including Iran, Cuba and Syria.

The US Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday that the case against the company based in Washington was the first parallel asset measure of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (fincen) in the crypto industry.

The comparisons expand the procedure of financial criminal overseers against alleged bypass in the crypto area.

At the beginning of this year, the United States also sanctioned two crypto mixing services, Blender.io and Tornado Cash, both of whom were allegedly used by hackers supported by North Korea. OFAC's lawsuit against Bittrex represents the largest enforcement measure of the office in relation to virtual currencies.

"If companies for virtual currencies do not implement effective controls to comply with sanctions, including the review of customers in sanctioned jurisdiction, they can become a vehicle for illegal actors who threaten the national security of the United States," said OFAC director Andrea Gacki.

Bittrex agreed to transfer over $ 24 million to OFAC in order to pay potential civil liability for over 116,000 obvious violations of several sanction programs. According to the Ministry of Finance, the shortcomings of the stock exchange meant that Bittrex failed to prevent people who apparently stop in the Crimean region of Ukraine, Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria to use the platform.

These people were said to be transactions in connection with virtual currencies worth 263 million

between March 2014 and December 2017

ofac also found that the exchange of "thousands of people in several jurisdiction that is subject to OFAC sanctions has achieved economic benefits, thereby affecting the integrity of several OFAC sanction programs".

"Virtual currency exchanges working worldwide should understand who - and where - their customers are," added Gacki.

The stock exchange also agreed to a comparison with finces over more than $ 29 million due to "intentional violations" against the anti-money laundering program of the banking secrecy law and reporting obligations for suspicious activities. However, Fincen credited the payment of Bittrex of $ 24 million to OFAC as part of his own unification.

In the period from February 2014 to December 2018, the investigation of fincen came to the conclusion that Bittrex "failed to maintain an effective program to combat money laundering". The stock exchange submitted no report on suspicious activities between February 2014 and May 2017 and submitted no reports on a "significant number" of transactions in which sanctioned jurisdiction were involved.

"For years, the mistakes in the money laundering and reporting of suspicious activities of Bittrex have unnecessarily exposed to the US financial system," said Himamauli, the incumbent director of fincen, and added that the company's mistakes at a risk of "high-risk counterparties, including sanctioned jurisdiction, intestinal markets, would have led and ransomware attacker ”.

Bittrex said that the company "tried to meet all official requirements carefully and in good faith", and added: "We are proud of our unshakable commitment to a robust compliance and the strong compliance measures that we introduced today".