Crypto Exchange KuCoin Charged With 'Multi-Billion Dollar Criminal Conspiracy'

Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and two of its founders were charged Tuesday by the United States Department of Justice with conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to operate a compliant anti-money laundering program. As a result, they allegedly enabling money laundering and terrorist activity to funnel through the platform.

"As alleged, in failing to implement even basic anti-money laundering policies, the defendants allowed KuCoin to operate in the shadows of the financial markets and be used as a haven for illicit money laundering, with KuCoin receiving over $5 billion and sending over $4 billion of suspicious and criminal funds," said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in a statement.

KuCoin founders Chun Gan and Ke Tang, both Chinese citizens, were charged alongside Flashdot Limited, Peken Global Limited, and Phoenixfin Private Limited.

“Today, we exposed one of the largest global cryptocurrency exchanges for what our investigation has found it to truly be: an alleged multibillion-dollar criminal conspiracy," said HSI Acting Special Agent in Charge Darren McCormack.

This story is breaking and will be updated with additional details.