The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has been investigating Kraken’s activities on the matter since 2019 and is likely to impose a fine, the Times cited people familiar with the probe as saying.
If so, Kraken would be the largest US cryptocurrency firm to face an enforcement action from OFAC sanctions against Iran, which the United States imposed in 1979 under an original prohibition on export of goods or services to people or entities in the Islamic republic.
The crypto industry has increasingly come under heat from US regulators with the market boom for digital currencies. Tether, a so-called stablecoin company, was fined by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission last year for mistating its reserves. The Justice Department has also brought insider-trading charges against a former ex-employee of Coinbase, the largest US crypto exchange.
The Times said messages it reviewed from an internal Kraken conversation on employee benefits in 2019 suggested that the company’s chief executive Jesse Powell was open to breaking the law in a wide range of situations if the advantages to the company outweighed potential penalties. It said Kraken has also been dealing with internal conflict over issues, including race and gender, incited by its chief executive.
The Times, however, said that Marco Santori, Kraken’s chief legal officer, replied that the company “does not comment on specific discussions with regulators.” He added, “Kraken closely monitors compliance with sanctions laws and, as a general matter, reports to regulators even potential issues.”
A Treasury spokeswoman also declined comments, the Times added.