The U.S. Treasury Department stated that American cryptocurrency exchange Kraken had agreed to pay more than US$362,000 to resolve allegations that it had broken Iranian sanctions.
According to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Kraken broke American sanctions by allowing Iranian users to undertake transactions totaling more than US$1.68 million between October 2015 and June 2019. (OFAC).
A comprehensive set of sanctions prohibits the export to Iran of American products, technologies, and services.
Kraken was accused by OFAC of improperly implementing systems that track users’ IP addresses and geolocations and restrict users from sanctioned nations.
The settlement is the result of the Treasury’s most recent campaign against the cryptocurrency sector. Bittrex Inc., a cryptocurrency exchange, paid the Treasury around $30 million in October to resolve accusations relating to sanctions and anti-money laundering laws.
As part of the settlement agreement, Kraken will invest US$100,000 in its sanctions compliance controls, which will include technical assistance for sanctions screening and training.
Six months or so before the settlement, Kraken lost Steven Christie, its chief global compliance officer, to Binance, a competing cryptocurrency exchange.
