Binance, the world’s largest virtual currency exchange, has pleaded guilty to violating the U.S.’ anti-money laundering(AML) laws and enabling deals with countries subject to U.S. sanctions.
The U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments said on Tuesday that the company agreed to pay more than four-point-three billion dollars in fines for violations related to the Bank Secrecy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The departments said Binance’s founder and chief executive officer, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an AML program in violation of the BSA and resigned from his post.
The treasury department said the violations include a “failure to implement programs to prevent and report suspicious transactions with terrorists, including Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as well as ransomware attackers and money launderers.”
The department added that Binance had matched “trades between U.S. users and those in sanctioned jurisdictions like Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea region of Ukraine.”
The department specifically pointed to the facilitation of some 80 virtual currency deals between U.S. users and the North, worth nearly four-point-four million dollars, in violation of sanctions against the reclusive state.