Block Inc., the digital payments firm founded by billionaire Jack Dorsey, was fined $40 million by New York for alleged anti-money-laundering inadequacies and cryptocurrency compliance failures on its Cash App platform.
The New York Department of Financial Services issued the fine after an investigation found Block had failed to conduct adequate due diligence on its customers and to monitor and report suspicious transactions in a timely manner, the agency said in a consent order Thursday. Block also allegedly failed to screen and monitor high-risk Bitcoin transactions. The department found violations of consumer protection regulations, according to the order.
“Following our recent settlement with our other state money transmission regulators, we have now reached an agreement with the final remaining state money transmission regulator, New York Department of Financial Services, to resolve the matter principally related to Cash App’s past compliance program,” Block said in a statement.
Dow Jones reported the settlement earlier.
Oakland, California-based Block has agreed to pay the fine and retain an independent monitor chosen by NYDFS for a year, according to the report. The company did not admit to any of the findings laid out in the order, it said in a statement.
At the heart of Block’s alleged failures was an inability to keep pace with the rapid user growth it experienced, the order states. The company has since pivoted away from prioritizing user growth toward selling banking services to its established base.
“All financial institutions, whether traditional financial services companies or emerging cryptocurrency platforms, must adhere to rigorous standards that protect consumers and the integrity of the financial system,” NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris said in a statement.
In one example demonstrating deficient know-your-customer practices, the regulator noted that Block identified roughly 25 to 30 subjects involved in a Russian criminal network that were able to open 8,359 Cash App accounts using falsified information, auto-generated email addresses and phone numbers before the company caught the activity during an internal investigation in 2022.
In January, Block agreed to pay $80 million to resolve claims from other state regulators that its Cash App unit lacked sufficient protocols to flag illicit transactions. The company said in a February filing that it was continuing negotiations with NYDFS over similar concerns, having been presented with a settlement offer a month earlier. In January, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined Block $55 million in civil money penalties and up to $120 million in redress to consumers after finding the company failed to effectively manage fraud on the Cash App platform.
Shares of Block fell 4.9% to $53.27 as of 3:17 p.m. in New York. The stock is down about 32% in the past year.
