#write2earn Legal Troubles for #KuCoin : Understanding the Charges and Implications #KuCoinSettlement

U.S. federal prosecutors accused KuCoin, a cryptocurrency exchange, and two of its founders of breaking anti-money laundering laws. They claimed KuCoin operated within the U.S., misled at least one investor about operating in the U.S., and failed to register with U.S. government bodies or maintain an anti-money laundering program. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, KuCoin and its founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, ran KuCoin as a money-transmitting business with over 30 million customers but only implemented a know-your-customer (KYC) or anti-money laundering (AML) program in 2023, which didn't cover existing customers. The indictment stated that KuCoin didn't register with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as a money services business.

Because KuCoin lacked KYC or AML programs, it was susceptible to being used for laundering proceeds from suspicious and criminal activities, including sanctions violations, darknet markets, and various schemes involving malware, ransomware, and fraud. The indictment also highlighted allegations that KuCoin indirectly received over $3.2 million worth of cryptocurrency from Tornado Cash, a sanctioned crypto mixer. KuCoin was mentioned in criminal cases against two developers of Tornado Cash, Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also filed a lawsuit against KuCoin, alleging failure to register as a futures commission merchant, swap execution facility, or designated contract market, and failure to implement the CFTC's equivalent of a KYC program.

Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Darren McCormack described KuCoin as an "alleged multibillion-dollar criminal conspiracy," emphasizing its status as one of the largest crypto exchanges. U.S. Attorney Damien Williams accused KuCoin of actively concealing the fact that a significant number of U.S. users were trading on its platform.