US Accuses KuCoin of Money Laundering

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The US government has filed charges against cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and its founders for allegedly engaging in money laundering activities totaling $9 billion.

According to the prosecutors, KuCoin’s founders, Chun (Michael) Gan and Ke (Eric) Tang, failed to implement proper know-your-customer and anti-money laundering procedures between 2017 and 2023, despite serving over 30 million clients.

As a result, existing users were not properly identified and verified. This allowed the exchange to be used for money laundering, with funds from illegal activities such as violating sanctions, illegal darknet markets, and ransomware being funneled through the platform.

The indictment states that from August 2022 to November 2023, 197 KuCoin deposit addresses received over $3.2 million of cryptocurrencies from the sanctioned mixer Tornado Cash, either directly or indirectly.