Paxful fined US$3.5m over transactions tied to sanctions breaches, ransomware, child sex abuse material

A prominent American peer-to-peer virtual currency trading platform must pay a US$3.5 million civil penalty over anti-money laundering/counter financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (AML/CFT/CFP) failings that enabled its services to be used by citizens of Iran and North Korea, plus a prostitution and sex trafficking website (backpage.com), which has been associated with child abuse.

By Keith Nuthall

A prominent American peer-to-peer virtual currency trading platform must pay a US$3.5 million civil penalty [1] over anti-money laundering/counter financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (AML/CFT/CFP) failings that enabled its services to be used by citizens of Iran and North Korea, plus a prostitution and sex trafficking website (backpage.com), which has been associated with child abuse.