KuCoin Pleads Guilty to Operating an Unlicensed Money Transmitting Business

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced in a release on Monday that KuCoin has pleaded guilty to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and will pay penalties totaling more than $297 million.

US Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon stated that KuCoin failed to implement necessary anti-money laundering policies, which allowed for billions of dollars in suspicious transactions to take place, including those involving criminal activity.

The exchange will also exit the US market for at least two years as part of the plea, and two of its founders, Chun “Michael” Gan and Ke “Eric” Tang, will leave the company.

According to the release, KuCoin served around 1.5 million registered users in the US and earned approximately $184.5 million in fees from these users.