Cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex LLC has agreed to pay about $7.59 million to settle allegations it allowed users in sanctioned regions to trade digital assets on its platform, the U.S. Treasury Department said, the Wall Street Journal reported. The settlement agreement, which became public Monday, alleged that Poloniex processed digital asset transactions worth a total of more than $15.3 million for customers in sanctioned regions between 2014 and 2019, despite the platform having know-your-customer information and internet protocol address data that told them otherwise, according to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces U.S. economic sanctions. These 232 customers were located predominantly in Crimea, which Russian forces seized from Ukraine in 2014, as well as in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria, regions that continue to face or previously faced comprehensive U.S. sanctions that bar U.S. companies and individuals from doing business there, OFAC said. Poloniex, which according to OFAC has its principal place of business in Boston, was acquired by cryptocurrency operator Circle Internet Financial for $400 million in 2018. OFAC said Circle implemented additional sanctions and compliance controls that significantly reduced the rate of additional similar sanctions violations. But some sanctions violations, particularly those related to a number of accounts opened by people in Crimea, continued in 2018 and 2019, OFAC said.
