The United States Treasury Department stated on Monday that the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, which is located in the United States, has agreed to pay more than $362,000 to resolve charges that it violated sanctions against Iran.
According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Treasury Department, the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken violated United States sanctions by enabling Iranian customers to engage in financial transactions totalling more than $1.68 million USD between October 2015 and June 2019.
A comprehensive set of restrictions places limitations on the export of commodities, technologies, and services from the United States to Iran.
OFAC said that Kraken did not properly deploy systems that detect users’ geolocations and IP addresses, therefore barring users coming from countries that are subject to sanctions.
The settlement is the most recent enforcement action taken by the Treasury Department against the crypto sector. In October, cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex Inc. made a payment of about US$30 million to the Treasury to resolve claims of violations of sanctions and anti-money laundering laws.
As part of the settlement agreement, Kraken will make an investment of one hundred thousand United States dollars (US$) in its sanctions compliance procedures. These controls will include training as well as technology measures to aid in the screening of sanctions.
Steven Christie, Kraken’s chief global compliance officer, left the company and went to work for Binance, a competitor cryptocurrency exchange, around six months before the settlement.
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