Crypto exchange Poloniex to pay $7.6M in OFAC sanctions case

Poloniex

Cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex agreed to pay nearly $7.6 million after engaging with more than 200 customers across a handful of sanctioned regions, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced.

Between July 2015 and September 2019, deficiencies in Poloniex’s compliance protocols played part in the company processing nearly 66,000 online digital asset-related transactions by customers in then-sanctioned jurisdictions, including the Crimea region of Ukraine, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria, said OFAC in its enforcement release published Monday. The combined value of the transactions surpassed $15 million, according to the regulator.

OFAC said Poloniex conducted this business despite having reason to know the locations of its customers. The relevant sanctions against Sudan have since been lifted.

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