Poloniex exchange pays compensation of $7.6 million to settle charges of violating sanctions

May 02, 2023
Poloniex LLC will pay compensation in the amount of $7.59 million to settle charges of crypto exchange in violation of the sanctions of the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury Department (OFAC).
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About 66 thousand violations of various sanctions programs were recorded on the trading platform, thanks to which users from Cuba, Crimea, Syria, Iran and Sudan made trade transactions totaling $15 million in the period from January 2014 to November 2019.

Poloniex was founded in January 2014, and the sanctions compliance program was implemented on the exchange in May 2015. During the specified period of time, crypto exchange services were available to users from sanctioned countries without restrictions.

At the moment, Poloniex belongs to a consortium of organizations led by the creator of the decentralized Tron crypto platform, Justin Sun. Previously, the owner of Poloniex was the American company Circle.

Last year, Poloniex announced a strategic partnership with the Huobi crypto exchange in order to accelerate the development of the Huobi Token ecosystem.

The OFAC report notes that Poloniex LLC was a small startup during most of the violations and during the Circle times the platform significantly improved the sanctions compliance program. Another mitigating circumstance was the cooperation of Circle and Poloniex with OFAC.