The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network this week fined Ripple Labs and its wholly-owned subsidiary, XRP II, $700,000 for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act while engaging in the exchange of virtual currency, and for failing to establish and maintain an appropriate anti-money laundering program. The settlement marks the first civil enforcement action against a virtual currency exchanger.
According to FinCEN, Ripple Labs willfully violated several requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) by acting as a money services business (MSB) and selling its virtual currency, known as XRP, without registering with FinCEN. It also failed to implement and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) program designed to protect its products from use by money launderers or terrorist financiers.
