According to The Block, the US Department of Justice announced on Tuesday (26th) that it has filed charges against cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and its two founders for violating anti-money laundering laws.
According to the indictment released by the US Southern District of New York prosecutor’s office, KuCoin and its two founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, are accused of operating an unlicensed money transfer business and violating the Bank Secrecy Act. US prosecutors claim that the exchange failed to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program, did not establish “reasonable procedures” to verify customer identities, and did not submit suspicious activity reports.
The indictment states that KuCoin intentionally evaded US anti-money laundering and KYC regulations by falsely claiming that it had no US customers, while in reality, KuCoin had a large number of US customers. Authorities allege that KuCoin allowed its platform to be used for laundering over $9 billion in funds.
The Department of Justice also stated that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a parallel civil lawsuit against KuCoin on Tuesday. According to the announcement, KuCoin is accused by the CFTC of operating an illegal digital asset derivatives exchange.
After news of the indictment broke, KuCoin claimed on its platform X that it operates well and user assets are safe. It is currently investigating the details through lawyers and states that KuCoin respects the laws and regulations of various countries and strictly adheres to compliance standards.
