The U.S. Department of Justice and the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have charged and sued leading global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and two of its founders for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and Unlicensed Money Transmission.
USDOJ: Prominent Global Cryptocurrency Exchange KuCoin And Two Of Its Founders Criminally Charged With Bank Secrecy Act And Unlicensed Money Transmission Offenseshttps://t.co/cbmj4chzG7
— Tree News (@News_Of_Alpha) March 26, 2024
In its announcement, the US Department of Justice alleged that KuCoin and its co-founders Chun Gan and Ke Tang violated US Anti-Money Laundering Laws by making KuCoin one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
At this point, Southern District of New York Attorney General Damian Williams and Acting Special Agent in Charge of the New York Homeland Security Investigations Field Office (“HSI”) Darren McCormack said that an indictment was filed against KuCoin and its founders Chun Gan and Ke Tang.
According to this indictment, cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and its founders Chun and Ke Tang are accused of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmission business and conspiring to violate Bank Secrecy.
US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said the following about the Kucoin case:
“As alleged in today’s Indictment, KuCoin and its founders deliberately attempted to conceal the fact that a significant number of US users were transacting on the KuCoin platform.
Indeed, KuCoin has allegedly leveraged its large US customer base to become one of the largest cryptocurrency derivatives and spot exchanges in the world, with billions of dollars in daily transactions and trillions of dollars in annual trading volume.
But taking advantage of unique opportunities in the United States, financial institutions like KuCoin must also comply with U.S. laws to help detect and dismantle crimes and corrupt financing schemes. However, KuCoin allegedly deliberately chose not to do this.
The defendants allegedly failed to enforce even basic anti-money laundering policies, allowing KuCoin to operate in the shadow of financial markets and be used as a haven for illegal money laundering.
“Today’s Indictment should send a clear message to other cryptocurrency exchanges: If you plan to serve US customers, you must comply with US law, plain and simple.”
