(Bloomberg) -- The cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and agreed to almost $300 million in fines and forfeitures, resolving a criminal case after settling similar civil claims in New York more than a year ago.
Seychelles-based Peken Global Ltd., one of three entities doing business as KuCoin, entered its plea Monday before US District Judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors. The judge imposed a fine of about $113 million and forfeitures of $184.5 million.
KuCoin and two of its founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, both of China, were indicted in March 2024 on charges of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and failing to implement an anti-money-laundering program. Gan and Tang signed deferred prosecution agreements and will each forfeit about $2.7 million, prosecutors said.
In a December 2023, KuCoin agreed to pay $22 million in fines and refunds and stop trading in New York to end claims by the state attorney general that KuCoin failed to register as a securities and commodities broker-dealer and falsely represented itself as a crypto exchange.
Earlier this month, pioneering crypto exchange BitMEX, which was also based in the Seychelles, was ordered by a judge to pay a $100 million fine for violating US anti-money laundering law, capping one of the first big criminal enforcement cases targeting the crypto market. BitMEX pleaded guilty in July to breaking the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires safeguards that include verifying customer identities and programs to prevent money laundering.
The KuCoin and BitMEX cases are among the last to be resolved by the US Justice Department under a years-long crackdown on crypto exchanges under former President Joe Biden. President Donald Trump, who took office last week, has promised to ease government scrutiny of the crypto market.
The case is US v Flashdot Ltd., 24-cr-168, US District Court, Southern District of New York.
--With assistance from Jazper Lu.