The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it reached an agreement with the cryptocurrency exchange CoinList.
At this point, CoinList, which was found to have failed to comply with the sanctions imposed by the USA on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine, agreed to pay 1.2 million dollars within the scope of its agreement with OFAC.
CoinList was found to have processed 989 transactions worth $1.25 million from users normally residing in Crimea, and OFAC called these transactions a “clear violation” of sanctions against Russia.
OFAC stated that Coinlist opened accounts for 89 users by choosing Russia as their country of residence but Crimea as their address when opening the account.
However, Coinlist's auditing mechanism could not detect whether these users resided in Crimea.
OFAC said in its statement that the fine CoinList would actually receive could be up to $327 million, but that the fine was significantly lower due to its past compliance, cooperation and small number of transactions relative to the exchange's total volume.
CoinList, on the other hand, said that it considered its agreement with OFAC as a learning opportunity regarding compliance.
“Our unwavering commitment to compliance is reinforced by our agreement to invest $300,000 in compliance controls, one of the largest investments by a crypto company of our stature.”
As is known, Russia occupied Crimea in 2014 and most countries still consider the region as part of Ukraine. This leads to the imposition of sanctions on Russia.
*This is not investment advice.
