Crypto Exchange Kraken Settles Case With US Treasury Over Serving Customers in Iran

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has reached a settlement with crypto exchange Kraken over serving customers in Iran, OFAC said in a statement Monday.

Kraken agreed to pay $362,159 to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of sanctions against Iran. Kraken also agreed to invest $100,000 in implementing additional sanctions compliance controls.

According to OFAC, Kraken failed to implement appropriate geolocation tools, including an automated internet protocol (IP) address blocking system, allowing customers in Iran to perform transaction on Kraken’s platform.

Marco Santori, chief legal officer at Kraken, told CoinDesk via email that “Kraken is pleased to have resolved this matter, which we discovered, voluntarily self-reported and swiftly corrected."

Santori added that “even before entering into this resolution, Kraken had taken a series of steps to bolster our compliance measures. This includes further strengthening control systems, expanding our compliance team and enhancing training and accountability.”

Read more: Crypto Exchange Kraken Launches 'Gasless' NFT Marketplace

UPDATE (Nov. 28: 19:20 UTC): Added comment from Kraken.