KuCoin, Execs Charged With Bank Secrecy Act and Unlicensed Money Transmission Offenses

investopedia.com:

Global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and two of its founders have been indicted on criminal charges of operating without a license for transmitting money and failing to establish an anti-money laundering (AML) program in accordance with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

KuCoin is accused by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York of neglecting to verify the identities of its customers adequately or to report any suspicious activities. The BSA mandates that financial platforms implement stringent measures for identifying their customers and reporting any transactions that could suggest criminal activities.

Other international crypto exchanges, such as Binance and BitMEX, have faced similar charges in the past.

KuCoin's founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, are alleged to have concealed their platform's significant engagement with U.S. traders. According to U.S. authorities Tuesday, this strategy allowed KuCoin to amass more than 30 million customers and billions of dollars in daily trades because it didn't follow the legal obligations in place for financial institutions operating within or targeting the U.S. market.

Overall, KuCoin is accused of facilitating the laundering of more than $5 billion in suspicious funds via deposits and $4 billion via withdrawals.

“As [Tuesday's] Indictment alleges, KuCoin and its founders deliberately sought to conceal the fact that substantial numbers of U.S. users were trading on KuCoin’s platform," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. «Indeed, KuCoin allegedly took advantage of its sizeable U.S. customer base to become one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency derivatives and spot exchanges, with billions of dollars of daily trades and trillions of dollars