OKX wants to become a leader in compliance with the regulations after resolving a settlement of $ 500 million with American authorities.
On 24 February, OKX -CEO -star XU recognized in the past in the past, but emphasized that American customers only represented a small part of their user base.
XU stated the company’s dedication to improve its regulation practices and to collaborate with authorities worldwide to establish the stock market as a compliance benchmark.
He said:
“Our vision is to make OKX the gold standard of global compliance on a scale on different markets and their respective regulatory authorities.”
Okx’s guilty plea
On February 24, the OKX operator, Aux Cayes Fintech Co. Ltd, to operate a non-registered money transport company in the US.
The settlement includes more than $ 504 million in financial fines, consisting of a fine of $ 84 million and the forfeiture of $ 420 million generated by American customers.
Acting American lawyer Matthew Podolsky revealed that the crypto-trading platform had violated anti-money laundering laws by not implementing guarantees, which resulted in more than $ 5 billion in suspicious transactions.
The DOJ noted that the company wishly and knowingly allowed customers to gain access to its platform despite the policy against such activities. Moreover, OKX did not register with the US Department of Treasuries Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN).
The authorities also accused OKX to enable users to bypass Know-Your-Customer (KYC) protocols. FBI assistant -director James Dennehy stated that OKX advised some American users to provide false information, which led to non -detected illegal transactions.
He noticed:
“For years, OKX has been violating American legislation, actively looking for customers in the United States – including here in New York – and even go so far to advise individuals to provide false information to bypass the required procedures.”
Compliance goals
OKX acknowledged that these compliance errors were due to old gaps, while they emphasized that American customers were responsible for a small part of their global user base.
The exchange also confirmed that no accusations of damage to customers or charges were made against employees.
OKX further respected respect for the regulations in every market, and emphasized that this scheme will support their journey to a worldwide compliance model
It concluded:
“Nowadays our compliance checks are among the leading in the industry. This issue is now behind us. “
The news comes as Coinbase, OpenSea and Robinhood escaped further research, fines or enforcement action by the SEC.