Jack Dorsey’s Block: A $40 Million Comedy of Compliance Errors! 🎭💸

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Ah, the digital payments realm, where fortunes are made and compliance is merely a suggestion! Jack Dorsey’s little venture, Block, has decided to settle down with the New York state financial regulator, and by settle down, I mean fork over a staggering $40 million over some rather cheeky compliance issues with their Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) program. 💰

According to the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), it seems Block had a bit of a hiccup in how it managed its darling Cash App, the peer-to-peer money transmission service that thought it could dabble in Bitcoin (BTC) transactions since 2018 without a care in the world. Oh, the audacity! 😏

In a riveting investigation, the regulator uncovered Block’s rather lackadaisical approach to customer due diligence and its failure to implement any semblance of controls to prevent the delightful world of anti-money laundering and other nefarious activities. Who knew compliance could be so… complicated? 🤷‍♂️

But wait, there’s more! The company allegedly turned a blind eye to a backlog of transaction alerts, all thanks to its meteoric rise between 2019 and 2020. It’s almost as if they thought they could just wing it! 🎈

The regulator, in its infinite wisdom, pointed out that Block’s cavalier attitude towards high-risk Bitcoin transactions allowed anonymous transactions to slip through the cracks like a bad actor in a farce. 🎭

As the government agency’s consent order so eloquently states,

“The AML program run by Block, which governs both fiat and Bitcoin transactions on the Cash App platform, failed to adequately consider the substantial risks posed to an entity of its new size and complexity.”

In the grand finale of this compliance comedy, Block must now pay a hefty $40 million in penalties and hire an independent monitor to ensure they play by the rules. How charming! 🎉

Superintendent of Financial Services Adrienne A. Harris chimed in with a delightful reminder,

“Compliance functions must keep pace with company growth or expansion. The rapid growth of Block’s Cash App absent a robust compliance function created risk and vulnerabilities that violated the rules financial services companies operating in New York must adhere to.”

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2025-04-11 23:02