KuCoin and two founders face charges from the Justice Department for breaching AML laws.

The United States Justice Department has revealed an indictment against cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and two of its founders for engaging in an unlicensed money transmitting business and breaching the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, KuCoin founders Chun Gan and Ke Tang intentionally neglected to implement an Anti-Money Laundering program at the exchange, resulting in the platform being used for illegal activities such as money laundering and terrorist financing. The company itself has been charged with operating without a license to transmit money and violating the BSA.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated that KuCoin and its founders purposely hid the fact that a significant number of U.S. users were trading on the platform. He added that KuCoin took advantage of its large U.S. customer base to become one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency derivatives and spot exchanges, with billions of dollars in daily trades and trillions of dollars in annual trade volume.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also filed a civil enforcement case against KuCoin on the same day, accusing the exchange of multiple violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations. The Justice Department stated that KuCoin had received over $5 billion and sent more than $4 billion of suspicious and criminal funds.
Chun Gan and Ke Tang played key roles in the establishment of KuCoin in 2017. The exchange’s operational headquarters were based in Seychelles, according to its website. At the time of publication, both founders, who are Chinese nationals, remained at large.
U.S. authorities have been actively pursuing criminal charges against cryptocurrency exchanges and their executives operating within the country. Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is due to be sentenced on March 28 after being found guilty on seven felony charges. Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is expected to be sentenced on April 30.
US enforcement agencies are intensifying their efforts to combat crypto-related crimes.