Former Employee Reveals Shocking Information
Block, the huge FinTech founded by the co-founder of Twitter, is currently under federal prosecution. A former employee revealed over 100 pages of illegal transactions and information regarding Block’s biggest services- the Square and Cash app.
The former employee revealed these documents both to the Feds directly, and in an NBC interview, which is where The Political Outlook sourced its information.
The documents were Southern District of New York documents, indicating 3 key things:
- Information provided to the government regarding Block’s day-to-day transactions was insufficient and incomplete.
- Cash app continued to facilitate transactions with US-sanctioned countries, such as Iran and Russia
- Square was involved in cryptocurrency transactions with known terrorist groups, such as ISIS and Hamas
Transactions with sanctioned countries, including Cuba and Venezuela too, ranged from a couple of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Transactions were as recent as late 2023 and January 2024.
Compliance Failures Across the Board
Co-founder of Twitter and Directing Manager of Square Jack Dorsey denies these claims. A Block spokesperson echoed this by saying “Block has a responsible and extensive compliance program and we regularly adapt our practices to meet emerging threats and an evolving sanctions regulatory environment”.
The former employee, however, said “It [The Block Compliance Sector] is led by people who should not be in charge of a regulated compliance program”.
According to NBC, the Southern District declined to comment. The entire organization is now under heavy scrutiny by federal authorities, who question how they overlooked such compliance failures amidst the threat of conflict between the US and sanctioned countries and terrorist groups.
The Feds describe the compliance failures as ‘widespread’. Block shares were down 8.8% following the NBC interview. The employee providing this information remains anonymous.
A similar event occurred in 2019 when the Binance Compliance Chief admitted to facilitating cryptocurrency funding to Hamas. According to Bloomberg, it enabled a “range of illicit actors”. Cash app alone has had around $248 billion worth of transactions in the last four quarters.
OFAC Neglection and Illicit Reimbursement
Correspondence trials indicated that transactions with sanctioned countries were ongoing long after the FinTech was made aware of the sanctions. Block believed it thought it had provided all information regarding the thousands of missing transaction reports to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). This is a department of the US Treasury. However, the OFAC states that they have no record of the referenced transactions.
The documents also provide evidence of illicit reimbursement for terrorist groups, whose funds were frozen following their sanctioning. It is not looking good for Block.
Take a quiz for this article:
To read more [Politics, Tech or Finance] articles, visit:
All Articles Belong to Copyright Holders:
Cover Image– Proactive Investors
