Kraken pays over US$360K to US Treasury to settle Iran sanctions allegations

U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has agreed to pay over US$362,000 to settle claims that it violated sanctions against Iran, the U.S. Treasury Department announced on Monday.

Fast facts

• Kraken violated U.S. sanctions by allowing Iranian users to conduct transactions worth more than US$1.68 million between October 2015 and June 2019, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
• U.S. goods, technology and services are restricted from export to Iran under a broad set of sanctions.
• OFAC said Kraken didn’t appropriately implement tools that identify users’ geolocations and IP addresses, blocking those from sanctioned countries.
• The settlement represents the Treasury’s latest crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry. Crypto exchange Bittrex Inc. paid around US$30 million to the Treasury in October to settle allegations related to sanctions and anti-money laundering laws.
• Kraken will invest US$100,000 in its sanctions compliance controls, including training and technical measures to assist in sanctions screening, as part of the settlement agreement.
• About six months prior to the settlement, Kraken lost its chief global compliance officer Steven Christie to rival cryptocurrency exchange Binance.