US authorities have banned the export of goods or services to Iranian businesses and individuals since 1979. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) accused Kraken of having clients in the Islamic Republic. The crypto exchange has opted for an amicable settlement of the dispute. Decryption.
$362,000+ for providing crypto services to Iranian clients
On November 28, OFAC issued a communicated in which he announces that he has reached an agreement with the crypto exchange Kraken. Indeed, the company agreed to pay more than 362,000 dollars to settle the damages related to its civil liability in the violation of the sanctions against Iran. OFAC said they are “apparent violations” of sanctions against Iran. The exchange will also pay $100,000 in sanctions compliance checks as part of the deal.
According to the authorities, since 2019, Kraken has constantly violated this ban. This, by allowing around 1,500 people in Iran to operate on its platform.
“Due to Kraken’s inability to timely implement appropriate geolocation tools, including an automated Internet Protocol address blocking system, the company exported services to users who appeared to be in Iran. when performing virtual currency transactions on the platform”read the OFAC memo.
On social networks, members of the community did not object to this sanction. For them, Kraken is a big company in the crypto value chain. So, it is impossible that she is not aware that Iranian users are present on her platform.
Nevertheless, Marco Santori, Kraken’s chief legal officer, assured that the crypto exchange has taken steps to strengthen compliance. But Kraken might not be at the end of his troubles. Recently, the New York Times reported that the company provides access to its services to people in Syria and Cuba. However, these countries are on the list of those to which American companies must not export their services.
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