Kucoin has pleaded guilty to a count of operating an unlicensed money that transmits business and has agreed to pay sanctions of over $ 297 million, the United States Law Office for the Southern District in New York said in a release on Tuesday.

“Kucoin avoided implementing the required policies against money laundering that are designed to identify criminal actors and prevent illegal transactions,” US lawyer Danielle R. Sassoon said in a statement.

“Kucoin was used to facilitate billions of dollars worth of suspicious transactions and to transfer potentially criminal revenue, including revenue from Darknet markets and malware, ransomware and fraud arrangements,” the statement added.

As part of the culprit, Kucoin has agreed to leave the US market for at least two years, and two of the exchange’s founders, Chun “Michael” Gan and Ke “Eric” Tang, will also deviate from the company.

Kucoin earned about 1.5 million registered users located in the United States and earned at least approx. $ 184.5 million in fees from these US registered users, release said.

The release notes that Kucoin employees openly promoted that the stock exchange did not have a know-your-custom (KYC) program. It was not until August 2023 that Kucoin adopted a KYC process, but it was not implemented on existing customers.

Gan and Tang, the founders of the exchange, have agreed to perish about $ 2.7 million in funds generated as a result of Kucoin’s operations in the United States

In a press release from Kucoin, Gan said he stepped down from the exchange to make sure its continued success and he had no intention of violating any US or international law.

KCS, Kucoin’s Exchange token, is up to 10% a day, according to CoingeCko data, but the token is traded thinly.