The U.S. Crypto exchange, Kraken, is found guilty of violating U.S. Sanctions by allowing crypto trading on its platform to Iran, New York Times reports.
Kraken has been under investigation by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control since 2019. According to NYT, the department will most probably impose a fine on Kraken for violating the sanctions.
The U.S government hasn’t been on good terms with Iran and banned the export of goods since 1979. This ban also prohibited any type of exchange including crypto. Kraken, which is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the U.S. didn’t respect the guidelines given by the government.
Nonetheless, Kraken’s Chief Legal Officer Marco Santori claims “Kraken has robust compliance measures in place and continues to grow its compliance team to match its business growth. Kraken closely monitors compliance with sanctions laws and, as a general matter, reports to regulators even potential issues.”
The U.S. Treasury Department hasn’t given an official comment on the situation but seeing the long-term investigation against the crypto exchange, Kraken might be summoned to defend itself for violating the U.S. sanctions.
However, Kraken isn’t the only exchange that has operated against the U.S. Sanctions. A few months ago, Binance was also guilty of providing crypto trading services to Iran.
Kraken has already been fined for allowing illegal trading and failing to register as a futures commission merchant by CFTF.