In short
- Shuttered Crypto Exchange Shapeshift pays $ 750,000 to arrange alleged sanctions from the American Treasury Department.
- The Ministry of Finance claims that the exchange allowed users from sanctioned countries as Cuba allowed to do transactions.
- Shapeshift, founded by Crypto OG Erik Voorhees, closed in 2021.
Placed Crypto -Exchange Shapeshift has agreed to pay $ 750,000 to arrange violations of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the US Department of Finance said Tuesday.
The government department said that the exchange – confronted by the early crypto entrepreneur Erik Voorhees – seized money from users based in sanctioned countries Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.
FBI claimed that Shapeshift “had no sanctions -compliance program to screen users or transactions for a Nexus to punish jurisdictions”, and more than $ 12.5 million incorporated into crypto transactions by users from sanctioned countries between December 2016 and October 2018.
“Only after Shapeshift received an administrative summons from OFAC did it adopt sanctions Compliance program, “the announcement of the Treasury Department is.
“Shapeshift had reason to know that such users were in sanctioned areas of law, Including on the basis of IP address data, “the Ministry of Finance continued, and added that the stock market” transferred economic benefits to people in various areas of law to OFAC Sanctions and therefore the integrity of multiple AC sanctioning programs damaged. “
It said that the fine was small, because Shapeshift is a hatch exchange with limited assets. Shapeshift closed in 2021.
The exchange-set in 2014, recorded in Switzerland, and more from Denver, Colorado before it was disabled, users to exchange digital coins and tokens without registering with typical Know-Your-Customer or KYC data, such as addresses or bank details. Clients can therefore exchange cryptocurrencies Bitcoin And Ethereum With a certain degree of anonymity.
Shapeshift received early financing from early crypto Bigwigs such as Roger “Bitcoin Jesus” Ver and Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert.
But the stock exchange ran into problems when the Securities and Exchange Commission started to investigate the platform for not registering as a broker or exchange.
Shapeshift last year agreed To an order and head assignment and a fine of $ 275,000 to arrange accusations of the SEC.
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