Jack Dorsey's Block Reaches $40 Million Settlement with New York Regulators for Anti Money Laundering Violations

According to The Block, Jack Dorsey's payment company Block, Inc. has reached a $40 million settlement agreement with the New York State financial regulatory agency due to anti money laundering loopholes. The consent order issued by the New York State Department of Financial Services on Thursday stated that the investigation found that the fintech company, formerly known as Square, had its anti money laundering program&34; Failure to fully consider the significant risks posed by its business scale and complexity;. The regulatory authorities specifically pointed out three major loopholes in Block: the lack of risk-based anti money laundering control measures, insufficient customer due diligence, and lenient handling of high-risk Bitcoin transactions, resulting in a large number of anonymous transactions going unchecked. This is the second time this year that Block has paid a settlement due to anti money laundering issues. In January of this year, the company paid $80 million to financial regulatory agencies in 48 states. A spokesperson for Block stated that this settlement marks the resolution of all state-level remittance license related matters, and emphasized that although the company has not acknowledged the investigation results, it has invested significant resources in improving the compliance system of the Cash App. According to the agreement, Block is required to hire an independent supervisor to implement the rectification.