Crypto exchange Kraken reportedly hunted by the Feds for alleged sanctions busting

The US government is reportedly investigating Kraken, a massive cryptocurrency exchange suspected of violating sanctions against Iran, and is expected to slap the crypto behemoth with a fine in the near future. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has been probing the US crypto exchange since 2019, …

[druck]

It's turtles crooks all the way down.

[Pascal Monett]

"Kraken has robust compliance measures in place"

Yeah, well we'll see just how robust those measures stand up against judicial enquiry.

Personally, you're a crypto scam. The only robust thing you have is your exit strategy.

[fxkeh]

Re: "Kraken has robust compliance measures in place"

Their exist strategy probably isn't as robust as that guy who "died in India" after all the money was looted from his crypto exchange.

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: "Kraken has robust compliance measures in place"

So cynical!

It's entirely possible he died, and even in India. He'd made plenty of enemies.

[dinsdale54]

Re: "Kraken has robust compliance measures in place"

That's right up there with

"Your call is important to us"

"$COMPANY takes security seriously"

Grifters be grifting

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: "Kraken has robust compliance measures in place"

Yes, he should have stopped at "Kraken does not comment on specific discussions with regulators,"

After all, the implication of that sentence is that he's going to shut up after completing it :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

not securities

"Coinbase has insisted the tokens it trades are not securities, which have special registration requirements."

Hmmm, do I understand it correctly that it means said tokens have 0 value ?

[batfink]

Hmmm - interesting definition

Putting aside all the unsurprising other news about the crypto world being rife with scammers, thieves and sundry other crooks, I do find it interesting that this crew seem to have charged with "exporting" to Iran.

So, if there have been trades in entirely digital (supposed) assets, how does that become "exporting"? Are the Americans trying to say that the bits representing those assets have been "exported" to Iran, when the tokens may actually lie anywhere?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Hmmm - interesting definition

Yes, they are saying that. The "value" is purchased and now owned by a person in Iran. That seems to be enough to count as "export". It's not even all that new a concept. Remember when certain US open source compression and cryptographic software was classed as "munitions" and forbidden from "export"?

[Michael Wojcik]

A harsh awakening for the traditionalists

I imagine many seasoned grifters shaking their heads sadly upon realizing that they've wasted so much time and energy in developing actual cons, when it turns out that just saying "hey, idiots, give me your money!" works so splendidly. The glory days of the struggle between confidence man and bunco squad, of the Pigeon Drop and the Spanish prisoner, are no more.

Damn disruptors.