Kyrgyzstan Withdraws Allegations Against Cryptocurrency Firms
On March 3, the State Financial Intelligence Service under the Ministry of Finance of Kyrgyzstan (SFIS) removed cryptocurrency companies from the list of organizations “suspected of involvement in money laundering.”
The resolution is in a restricted section of the website, but several Telegram channels have shared the file.
According to the order, 20 companies were removed from the Consolidated Sanctions List due to the cancellation/revocation of documents that justified their inclusion. These could include court decisions from various jurisdictions, requests from law enforcement and regulatory bodies, or international sanctions.
In late February, the cryptocurrency exchange TokenSpot and the crypto exchange service CashBack were the first to be removed from the list based on updated information.
Representatives of the Kyrgyzstan-licensed exchange TokenSpot told ForkLog that the SFIS did not notify them of their inclusion in the sanctions list.
“As for the probable reasons for our inclusion and that of other colleagues — we can assume it was a kind of accompanying check of the entire cryptocurrency market in Kyrgyzstan, and we, as one of the few and largest exchanges in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, could not be overlooked,” they stated.
According to them, being included in the list almost halted operations and interactions with banks, which is a primary tool for working with corporate clients.
“Throughout this inspection, we closely interacted with state agencies, so we do not fully understand on what basis from the materials we provided with explanations of our activities the final decision to remove us from the list was made. As a result of the inspection, no violations were found at the TokenSpot platform, and no directives were issued; our activities fully comply with the regulator’s requirements,” the exchange team noted.
ForkLog has requested comments from the SFIS.
Back in February 26, the authorities in Kyrgyzstan added 22 companies, including those based in Russia, to the sanctions list. The regulator prohibited banks and non-financial organizations from engaging with them.
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