原作者：正義
原始出處：正義
編譯：吳碩區塊鏈
KuCoin及其兩位創辦人Chun Gan和Ke Tang無視美國反洗錢法，將KuCoin發展成全球最大的加密貨幣交易所之一。
美國紐約南區檢察官達米安威廉斯(Damian Williams) 和負責紐約國土安全調查局的代理特工達倫麥科馬克(Darren McCormack) 今天宣布，他們已對全球加密貨幣交易所KuCoin 及其兩位創始人展開調查， Chun GAN（化名“Michael”）和KE TANG。 （化名「Eric」），因未能維持充分的反洗錢程序以防止 KuCoin 被用於洗錢和資助恐怖主義而合謀違反《銀行保密法》。能夠維持合理的程序來驗證客戶身份，並因未能提交任何可疑活動報告而受到起訴。 KuCoin也被指控經營未經許可的匯款業務並嚴重違反《銀行保密法》。 GAN 和 TANG 仍在逃。
美國檢察官 Damian Williams 表示：「正如今天的起訴書所指控的那樣，KuCoin 及其創始人故意試圖掩蓋大量美國用戶在 KuCoin 平台上進行交易的事實。事實上，據稱庫幣憑藉其龐大的美國客戶群，已成為全球最大的加密貨幣衍生品和現貨交易所之一，每日交易量達數十億美元，年交易量達數萬億美元。然而，像庫幣這樣的金融機構已經利用了美國的機會。獲得了遵守美國法律的獨特機會，以幫助識別和驅逐犯罪和腐敗融資計劃。據稱，庫幣故意選擇不這樣做。由於未能執行最基本的反洗錢政策，被告涉嫌允許庫幣在金融市場上運作。庫幣在暗處運作，成為非法洗錢的避風港，庫幣收受超過50 億美元，並發送超過40 億美元的可疑和犯罪資金。資金。像 KuCoin 這樣的加密貨幣交易所不能兩者兼得。今天的起訴書應該對其他加密貨幣交易所發出一個明確的警告：如果你打算為美國客戶提供服務，你就必須遵守美國法律，就這麼簡單。”
Darren McCormack, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations, said: "Today, we uncovered one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, and our investigation discovered what it was actually: an alleged multi-billion dollar criminal conspiracy. Although it was revealed that Alleging failure to comply with laws necessary to ensure the security and stability of our world's digital banking infrastructure, KuCoin grew into a platform serving more than 30 million customers. The defendants' alleged pattern of circumventing these vital laws is finally over. I am deeply concerned about Homeland Security Investigations We commend New York’s El Dorado Task Force and our law enforcement partners for their commitment.”
According to the charges in the indictment and KuCoin’s statement on its website:
FLASHDOT LIMITED (formerly "Phoenixfin Limited"), PEKEN GLOBAL LIMITED and PHOENIXFIN PRIVATE LIMITED are three entities that jointly operate KuCoin, a global cryptocurrency exchange. GAN, TANG and others founded KuCoin in September 2017.
KuCoin attracted business from U.S. clients through its spot trading platform and later launched its futures trading platform in July 2019. Since its founding in 2017, KuCoin has become one of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms in the world, with more than 30 million customers and billions of dollars worth of daily cryptocurrency trading volume. KuCoin’s website promotes a public ranking that places KuCoin in the top five global cryptocurrency exchanges. One of the public rankings ranks KuCoin as the fourth largest cryptocurrency derivatives exchange and the fifth largest cryptocurrency spot exchange. KuCoin, GAN, and TANG are designed to serve, and indeed already serve, numerous customers located in the United States and the Southern District of New York.
Accordingly, at all relevant times, KuCoin has been a funds transmission business required to register with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) and, since July 2019, has been a funds transmission business required to register with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") registered futures commission merchant. As a funds transmission business and futures commission merchant, KuCoin must comply with applicable Bank Secrecy Act regulations requiring the maintenance of adequate anti-money laundering procedures, including customer identity verification or know-your-customer (“KYC”) processes. AML and KYC procedures ensure that financial institutions, like KuCoin, are not used for illegal purposes, including money laundering.
GAN, TANG, and KuCoin were aware of their AML obligations in the United States but deliberately chose to ignore these requirements. For example, KuCoin failed to implement adequate KYC procedures. In fact, until at least July 2023, KuCoin does not require customers to provide any identifying information. It was only in July 2023 that KuCoin belatedly adopted KYC procedures for new customers after it was informed of a federal criminal investigation into its activities. However, this KYC process only applies to new customers and has not been applied to KuCoin’s millions of existing customers, including a large number of those based in the United States. KuCoin has also never filed any required suspicious activity reports, never registered with the CFTC as a futures commission merchant, and, until at least the end of 2023, never registered with FinCEN as a money transmission business.
In fact, GAN, TANG, and KuCoin actively attempted to hide the presence of KuCoin’s U.S. customers in order to make KuCoin appear exempt from U.S. AML and KYC requirements. Although KuCoin collects and tracks customers’ location information, KuCoin actively prevents its U.S. customers from identifying themselves when opening KuCoin accounts. And, KuCoin lied to at least one investor in 2022 about the location of its customers, falsely stating that it had no U.S. customers, when in fact, KuCoin had a large U.S. customer base. In fact, in multiple social media posts, KuCoin actively promotes itself to U.S. customers as an exchange where they can trade without KYC. For example, KuCoin stated in a Twitter message in April 2022, “KYC is not supported for US users, however, KYC is not mandatory on KuCoin. Usual transactions can be completed using unverified accounts -"
Due to KuCoin's deliberate failure to maintain required AML and KYC procedures, KuCoin was used as a vehicle to launder large amounts of criminal proceeds, including proceeds from darknet markets and malware, ransomware, and fraud schemes. Since its inception in 2017, KuCoin has received over $5 billion and sent over $4 billion in suspicious and criminal proceeds. Many KuCoin customers use its trading platform specifically because of the anonymity service it provides. In other words, KuCoin’s no-KYC policy is critical to its growth and success.
GAN, 34, and TANG, 39, both Chinese nationals, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Bank Secrecy Act and one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business. Each count carries a maximum penalty of Five years in prison.
FLASHDOT LIMITED, an entity registered in the Cayman Islands; PEKEN GLOBAL LIMITED, an entity registered in the Republic of Seychelles; and PHOENIXFIN PRIVATE LIMITED, an entity registered in Singapore, jointly operating under the name "KuCoin", each was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate Bank Secrecy Act count, punishable by up to five years in prison; Conspiracy to operate an unauthorized funds transmission business, punishable by up to five years in prison; Bank Secrecy Act violation count, punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; and one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The maximum potential penalty in this case was set by Congress and is for informational purposes only, as the defendant's final sentence will be determined by a judge.
Mr. Williams commended Homeland Security Investigations’ New York-based El Dorado Task Force for its outstanding investigative work. Mr. Williams further thanked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which today filed a parallel civil lawsuit against KuCoin.
The matter is being handled by the office's Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emily Deininger and David R. Felton prosecuted this case.
The charges in the indictment are accusations only, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
KuCoin responded:
KuCoin works great and our users’ assets are absolutely safe. We are aware of the reports and are currently investigating the details through our lawyers. KuCoin respects the laws and regulations of various countries and strictly abides by compliance standards.
Full text of the CFTC civil lawsuit:
https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8884-24
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that it has filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing Mek Global Limited, PhoenixFin PTE Ltd., Flashdot Limited and Peken Global Limited of jointly operating a centralized digital asset under the name KuCoin. exchange, violated multiple provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and the CFTC.
The complaint accuses KuCoin of illegally engaging in over-the-counter commodity futures trading, leverage, margin, or providing financing for retail commodity transactions; without registering as a futures commission merchant (FCM), it solicited and accepted commodity futures, swaps, leverage, margin, or retail commodity futures from the CFTC. orders to finance commodity transactions; failed to carefully monitor its FCM activities; operated a facility that traded or processed swaps without being registered as a Swap Execution Facility (SEF) or a Designated Contract Market (DCM); and failed to implement effective customer Identification Program (CIP).
In its ongoing lawsuit against KuCoin, the CFTC seeks disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction prohibiting further violations of CEA and CFTC regulations.
Enforcement Director Ian McGinley said: “For too long, some overseas cryptocurrency exchanges have followed a now-familiar playbook by offering derivative products and falsely claiming that Americans cannot use their platforms, when in fact, any use U.S. persons using common techniques were able to transact without providing basic customer identifying information."
McGinley continued: “As the CFTC’s action today and its previous enforcement actions make clear, the CFTC’s playbook should also be familiar by now – the CFTC will charge these entities with failing to register with the CFTC and comply with the requirements of Protecting U.S. Customers, Prevention and Detection Agency Rules for Terrorist Financing and Money Laundering.”
Case Background
According to the complaint, from approximately July 2019 to approximately June 2023, KuCoin offered and executed commodity derivatives and leveraged, margined or financed commodity transactions to U.S. users without implementing required KYC compliance procedures. The complaint further alleges that although KuCoin claimed to have implemented KYC procedures, these procedures were in fact false and did not prevent U.S. customers from trading commodity interests and derivatives on the platform.
The complaint also alleges that persons claiming to be U.S. customers were allowed to trade commodity futures, swaps, and leveraged, margined, or financed commodity transactions on the exchange in violation of CEA and CFTC regulations. During the relevant period, KuCoin did not impose any IP address restrictions to prevent U.S. customers from trading commodity interests, nor did it take into account common technologies such as virtual private networks (VPNs), which could potentially bypass IP address restrictions.
Attached:
As early as 2022, Wu said a blockchain article predicted based on data analysis that since KuCoin’s largest traffic comes from the United States and is the only major offshore exchange that has not banned US IP at all, it may face regulatory pressure from the United States.
