Crypto Exchange Kraken Settles Case With US Treasury Over Serving Customers in Iran
Kraken has agreed to pay $362,159 to settle its potential liability for violating U.S. sanctions.
Nov 28, 2022 at 6:59 p.m. UTC
/arc-photo-coindesk/arc2-prod/public/LXF2COBSKBCNHNRE3WTK2BZ7GE.png)
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.”
UPDATE (Nov. 28: 19:20 UTC): Added comment from Kraken.
Disclosure
Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, institutional digital assets exchange. Bullish group is majority owned by Block.one; both groups have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary, and an editorial committee, chaired by a former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, is being formed to support journalistic integrity.
:format(webp)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/coindesk/97f8c8cb-1c52-468c-88f4-8822b84a4203.png)
Nelson Wang was CoinDesk's news editor for the East Coast. He holds BTC and ETH above CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.
Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk's longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.