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US Treasury cuts off MEXC over alleged $16B in illicit transactions
The US Treasury bureau FinCEN on Friday ordered US financial institutions to stop processing transfers involving MEXC Global.
Reported by 2 outlets · CoinTelegraph · bitcoinmagazine.com
Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a final order Friday that will cut offshore exchange MEXC Global off from the American banking system over alleged links to sanctions evasion by Iran, North Korea and Russia, the department said. FinCEN's order, published as a PDF pending Federal Register placement, finds MEXC a "primary money laundering concern in connection with Russian illicit finance" under section 9714(a) of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act. Thirty days after that Register notice, covered U.S. financial institutions will be barred from any funds transfer — including convertible virtual currency — to or from MEXC.
Reuters reported the same cut-off Friday afternoon. Treasury framed the move as part of Operation Economic Outcast. It is not an OFAC sanctions designation: the order says it does not rewrite Bank Secrecy Act duties or OFAC rules, and it is a FinCEN funds-transmittal ban rather than a Section 311 proposed rulemaking.
