DUBLIN, Europe: The High Court has confirmed that the Central Bank imposed a fine of 21.5 million euros against a crypto services provider for breaches of its monitoring obligations linked to anti-money-laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.
High Court president Justice David Barniville confirmed the sanction on January 12. It also included a reprimand of Coinbase Europe Ltd by the Central Bank.
The company is part of the global Coinbase Group, which operates a significant international trading platform for crypto assets. Coinbase Europe was established six years ago to provide crypto asset and wallet services to customers in Europe and beyond.
Coinbase Europe has seven days to pay the fine after settling with the Central Bank last November.
Confirming the penalty, Justice Barniville said it was a huge fine and included a reprimand, but added that it was not disproportionate. He also noted that the sanction was agreed to by consent and was not challenged in court.
The court said the original fine set by the Central Bank was 30.6 million euros, but it was reduced to 21,464,734 euros after a 30 percent settlement discount.
In a court affidavit, Louise Gallagher from the Central Bank's Enforcement Investigations Division said crypto firms face a high risk of money laundering and terrorist financing due to their technology, cross-border operations, and features that enable anonymity.
Coinbase Europe accepted the facts of the case.
After the settlement, the Central Bank of Ireland said Coinbase Europe, as a virtual asset service provider, must continuously monitor customer transactions and report any suspected money laundering or terrorist financing to the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Revenue Commissioners as soon as possible.
The bank said Coinbase Europe was fined because problems in its transaction monitoring system meant more than 30 million transactions were not correctly checked over 12 months. These transactions totaled more than 176 billion euros and accounted for about 31 percent of all Coinbase Europe transactions during that period.
It also took the company almost three years to thoroughly review the affected transactions.
The Central Bank said Coinbase Europe admitted it broke the law by failing to properly monitor 30,442,437 transactions, failing to put in place adequate internal controls to prevent and detect money laundering and terrorist financing, and failing to carry out extra checks on 184,790 transactions.
