Kraken, US Treasury Settle Case Over Crypto Service in Iran

The U.S. Treasury Department has officially reached a settlement with crypto exchange Kraken over alleged transactions in Iran.

In a statement released by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Monday (Nov. 28), the U.S. Treasury outlined the terms of its settlement with Kraken’s parent company, Payward, after the company was accused of violating U.S. sanctions over interactions with Iranian customers.

According to the statement, Kraken ended up on OFAC’s radar by allegedly failing to “implement appropriate geolocation tools, including an automated internet protocol (IP) address blocking system.” Subsequently, “Kraken exported services to users who appeared to be in Iran when they engaged in virtual currency transactions on Kraken’s platform.”

The company has agreed to pay $362,159 to settle its potential liability in the case, as well as investing $100,000 toward implementing additional sanctions compliance controls into its company practices going forward.

“Kraken is pleased to have resolved this matter, which we discovered, voluntarily self-reported and swiftly corrected,” Marco Santori, chief legal officer at Kraken, said in an emailed response to PYMNTS,.

“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,” Santori added. “With these enhanced systems in place, we are in a stronger position to continue our mission of accelerating the adoption of cryptocurrency so people from around the world can achieve financial freedom and inclusion.”

Read more: Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, Crypto’s First Banker, Steps Down

The crypto exchange recently changed executive hands after its co-founder and previous CEO, Jesse Powell, stepped down from the position in October. To fill the role, the company appointed then COO Dave Ripley, while Powell has remained at the company as chairman.

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