An offshore cryptocurrency trading agency argued on Monday guilty in the American court in Manhattan for an accusation of operating as a money without a permit in the United States, while looking for customers in New York and other states.
When pleading, it was guilty of the company established in Seychellen that operates OKX, which the government described as one of the world's largest cryptome areas, also corresponding to pay $ 504 million in fines and fines. The company still has activities in the United States.
Financial companies, including crypto-currency fairs, which are active in the United States, must register with federal supervisors as a money-shipping company to meet anti-money laundering laws.
OKX had violated that required for years, federal prosecutors said.
“For more than seven years, OKX consciously violated anti-money laundering laws and avoids the implementation of the required policy to prevent criminals from abusing our financial system,” said Matthew Podolsky, who traded the American lawyer for the southern district of New York in Manhattan .
The guilty plea was introduced in the court by Christina Deng, a business secretary based in Hong Kong, according to her LinkedIn profile. Mrs Deng read from a prepared explanation for the American court Katherine Polk Faila and said: “We regret it deeply” that we have not obtained the correct license.
“On behalf of the company we thank the government and your honor too,” she said.
Later, David Meister, a lawyer for the company, said the indictment of the company guilty of having nothing to do with money laundering. “Today's settlement contained absolutely no accusations of money laundering,” he said.
Mr Podolsky said in a statement that the failure of the stock market did not register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Treasury Department, or FINCEN, possibly had allowed to process billions of dollars in suspicious transactions.
Federal authorities said that American customers had generated hundreds of millions of dollars in trading costs for the exhibition from 2018 to 2024 – a time when it was contrary to federal legislation.
Although OKX should not accept that the company accepted from American customers, the authorities said it brought themselves to the market in the country, including serving as a sponsor of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
Aux Cayes Fintech, the parent company of the OKX Exchange and other affiliated companies, said in a statement that no customers were damaged in the process and the number of American customers on his platform “was a small percentage of the company's worldwide customer population.”
The website of the company, which was last updated in January, said it was registered as a money shipping company in the United States, but did not provide services to customers in a number of states, including New York.
In a press release, federal prosecutors said the company received a reduction of 25 percent in the agreed fine because it had taken corrective steps during the investigation.
The culprit plea from OKX comes when the Securities and Exchange Commission withdraws on its efforts to regulate the crypto industry with enforcement actions. On Monday, the online brokerage Robinhood said that the SEC had announced that the regulator conducted an investigation into the sale of digital assets on his platform.
Last week, Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange of the country, said the SEC to dismiss his lawsuit against the company. The SEC had charged that the digital currencies sold on the Coinbase platform were not registered effects.
President Trump, who became an avid supporter of the Crypto industry during the presidential campaign, has sworn that the SEC would stop life so hard to make crypto companies.
