- OKX has imposed a fine of $ 504 million for violating American anti-money laundering laws.
- The SEC dropped business against Robinhood and OpenSea, which followed a focus on non-conforming foreign entities about domestic companies that follow the American rules.
The Cryptocurrency exchange based in Seychelles has found OKX guilty of breaking the laws of the American anti-money washing laws (AML) and has agreed to pay more than $ 504 million in fines.
The settlement comprises $ 420.3 million in criminal forfeiture and a criminal fine of $ 84.4 million after years of illegal activities that focus on American customers without the correct regulatory registration.
A seven -year -old pattern of illegal activity
According to acting American lawyer Matthew Podolsky, OKX’s violations overspring More than seven years, which means that more than $ 5 billion in suspicious transactions is linked to criminal revenues.
He emphasized the seriousness of the crimes, pointing out that the company had consciously violated AML laws and was unable to guarantee to implement that were designed to prevent criminal abuse of the financial system.
“The guilty plea and fines of today emphasize that there will be consequences for financial institutions that use American markets, but to have the law broken by criminal activities.”
The FBI also played a crucial role in the research.
Assistant -director James E. Denny emphasized the severity of the misconduct of OKX and explained,
“For years, OKX has been violating American legislation, actively looking for customers in the United States – including here in New York – and even go so far to advise individuals to provide false information to bypass the required procedures.”
How OKX bypassed the American rules
Despite the fact that an official policy prohibits users based in the US, OKX secretly sought American retail and institutional customers.
From 2018 to the beginning of 2024, American customers generated more than $ 1 trillion in transactions via OKX, which contribute hundreds of millions to trading costs.
Estimated materials presented in the court showed that OKX employees advised our customers on circumventing regulatory checks. In one case of April 2023, an OKX employee told a potential American user,
“I know you are in the US, but you could just place a random country and it should continue. You only have to place the name, nationality and ID number. You could just place united Arab emirates and random numbers for the ID number. “
Even after the implementation of a knowledge of your customer (KYC), OKX reportedly continued to allow transactions without verifying identities, so that users can bypass controls via VPNs and “non-public making brokers”.
OKX’s answer and future compliance efforts
Publicly rackOKX’s parent company, Aux Cayes Fintech Co. Ltd., recognized “Legacy Compliance Gaps”, but emphasized that the number of affected American users was a small group of his global customer base.
The company stated,
“There were no allegations of the damage to customers, no costs against an employee of a company and no monitor appointed by the government as part of the settlement.”
Changes in regulations?
The OKX case comes in the midst of a wave of regulatory actions aimed at sharpening control over cryptocurrency platforms.
Within a few days of the OKX scheme, two other high-profile crypto investigations were concluded with considerably different results-the processing of questions about whether American supervisors are shifting their focus.
Robinhood Crypto announced That the SEC had closed its investigation without enforcement action. Dan Gallagher, Chief Legal Officer of Robinhood, welcomed the decision and stated:
“We welcome the decision of the staff to close this investigation without action.”
In a similar spirit, the SEC also left his research into OpenSea, a large NFT marketplace. The CEO of the Platform, Devin Finzer, described The closure as a victory for makers of digital abilities.
The timing of these cases suggests a possible shift in the secure strategy of the SEC.
While Robinhood and OpenSea emerged unscathed, the aggressive attitude against OKX could indicate that American authorities are focusing on non-compliant foreign platforms with a considerably American user file.