A San Francisco-based crypto exchange has reached an agreement with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to settle its potential civil liability for violating U.S. sanctions related to Russia and Ukraine.
In a new enforcement release, OFAC says CoinList Markets (CLM) has agreed to pay more than $1.2 million to settle its processing of hundreds of transactions that violated the government’s embargo policy.
The agency said the exchange complied with some of the sanctions measures, including denying access to users with IP addresses in banned jurisdictions and denying applications from users presenting IDs from and providing addresses in sanctioned countries.
Unfortunately, CLM’s screening procedures fell short. OFAC says some users living in Russia have managed to open an account after providing addresses in Crimea.
“CoinList Markets LLC (“CLM”), a San Francisco, California-based virtual currency exchange, has agreed to pay $1,207,830 to settle its potential legal liability arising from processing 989 transactions on behalf of users habitually Crimea between April 2020 and May 2022, which is a clear violation of OFAC sanctions between Russia and Ukraine.”
CLM faces a regulatory penalty of $327,306,583, but OFAC says the settlement amount reflects several considerations, including the exchange’s remedial actions to improve compliance.
“Given the individual facts of this case, including CLM’s financial circumstances, $300,000 of the settlement amount will be suspended pending satisfactory completion of CLM’s compliance obligations as agreed to by CLM as part of this settlement. Additionally, in partial satisfaction of the settlement amount, CLM has also agreed to invest $300,000 in additional sanctions compliance controls, including enhanced screening controls and additional compliance personnel.
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