Settlement Agreement between the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and Poloniex, LLC

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today announced a settlement with Poloniex, LLC (“Poloniex”).  Poloniex agreed to remit $7,591,630 to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of sanctions against Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria.  Between January 2014 and November 2019, the Poloniex trading platform allowed customers apparently located in sanctioned jurisdictions to engage in online digital asset-related transactions—consisting of trades, deposits, and withdrawals—with a combined value of $15,335,349, despite having reason to know their location based on both Know Your Customer information and internet protocol address data.  The settlement amount reflects OFAC’s determination that Poloniex’s apparent violations were not voluntarily self-disclosed and were not egregious.  For more information, please visit the following web notice.