What to know : The U.S. Department of Justice won a $4 million penalty from former crypto platform Paxful in a sentence tied to the dodging of money-laundering laws. The amount was reduced from an original amount of $112 million by prosecutors after determining the business couldn't pay that much, the DOJ said.
Paxful Holdings, which pleaded guilty last year to accusations from U.S. authorities that it had fostered illegal prostitution, violated money-laundering laws and knowingly handled criminal proceeds, was sentenced to pay a $4 million penalty, much reduced because of the business’ current ability to pay.
The peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace that had been popular in Africa shut down in 2023, but Paxful had processed as much as $3 billion in crypto trades from 2017 to 2019, according to U.S. authorities, including transactions for customer Backpage, an advertising platform for illicit sex work.
"This sentence sends a clear message: companies that turn a blind eye to criminal activity on their platforms will face serious consequences under U.S. law," said U.S. Attorney Eric Grant for the Eastern District of California, in a statement.
On the Paxful platform, customers negotiated trades of digital assets for other items, such as cash, prepaid cards and gift cards. The founders were said to have marketed the site as a way around the Bank Secrecy Act's anti-money-laundering constraints.
Prosecutors originally contemplated a penalty of more than $112 million, but the firm was determined to be able to pay no more than $4 million.
Read More: Paxful’s Fall: Questions in the Peer-to-Peer Bitcoin Exchange’s Demise
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
