thecoinrise.com
The United States Department of Treasury has issued a $30 million fine against the cryptocurrency exchange platform Bittrex for breaking the terms of the settlement agreement.
The popular crypto exchange continued offering its services to users from countries that were subject to sanctions, including Iran, Syria, and Crimea, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Bittrex allowed users from sanctioned nations to transact $263M
From March 28, 2014, to December 31, 2017, Bittrex consumers from renegade regions carried out transactions totaling an estimated $263 million.
According to the sanctions enforcement agency, it has blocked 1,730 accounts from dubious states using its sites.
Notably, according to OFAC, the statutory maximum civil monetary penalty, in this case, is a massive $35 billion. However, because these violations were “non-egregious,” the penalties were drastically lowered.
Bittrex was in violation of OFAC-administered sanctions programs on a routine basis because it did not properly screen information regarding its customers’ IP addresses in order to establish whether or not any of its customers were located in countries that are subject to sanctions. It is also reported that an user using an Iranian passport was able to create an account on the platform.
The sanctions enforcer sent a subpoena to Bittrex in 2017, which prompted the exchange to take adherence to the sanctions more seriously. It began investigating IP addresses and removing accounts that were linked to sanctioned sites as a result of these investigations.
Bittrex has made it clear that it is relying on the support of third-party service providers in order to strengthen its efforts to comply with sanctions, as detailed in the statement that the company has released.
The recent activities come at a time when the regulators around the world are targeting Russia over its aggressive response to Ukraine. While European Commission imposed fresh sanctions against the country, the U.S. has also included crypto in its ist of sanctions on Russian government.