Block Agrees to $40M NYDFS Penalty Over Lackluster Compliance Program

Block, Inc. has agreed to a $40 million settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for “significant failures” in its anti-money laundering compliance program, the Wall Street regulator announced on Thursday.

The company led by Jack Dorsey has agreed to retain an independent monitor after violating the Department’s money transmitter and virtual currency rules, the NYDFS added.

The NYDFS found that Block’s company had “inadequate customer due diligence” and failed to implement systems sufficient for preventing money laundering and illicit activity.

Block’s services were “vulnerable to criminal exploitation,” the NYDFS said, arguing that Block’s “lax treatment” of Bitcoin transactions allowed largely anonymous transactions to evade scrutiny.

“Compliance functions must keep pace with company growth or expansion,” NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris said in a statement.

With its so-called BitLicense, Block’s Cash App had been regulated under the NYDFS as a virtual currency business since 2018.

Last year, Cash App ended its support for free peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin payments, while leaning into other cryptocurrency services that users have gravitated toward.