Crypto Trader Bittrex Fined Over US Sanctions Violations (1)

The US fined virtual currency exchange Bittrex Inc. $53 million for failing to prevent customers in Iran, Cuba and other heavily sanctioned nations from using its platform.

Bittrex, founded in 2014 by three Amazon Inc. alumni, allowed about $263 million in virtual currency transactions by people in the Crimea region of Ukraine, as well as Cuba, Iran, Syria and Sudan between March 2014 and December 2017, the Treasury Department said.

“Virtual currency exchanges operating worldwide should understand both who -- and where -- their customers are,” Andrea Gacki, the head of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in a ...