The Financial Crime Investigation Service (FCIS) under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania has fined Payeer, a cryptocurrency firm. The fine amount is 9.29 million euros.
The company, which used its platform “Payeer.com,” was found to have violated international sanctions laws for over 1.5 years. During this time, Payeer had at least 213,000 customers and revenue of over 164 million euros.
Payeer allowed its customers to use transactions in Russian rubles, transferring them to and from Russian banks that were sanctioned by the European Union.
According to the FCIS, UAB Payeer registered in Lithuania on October 20, 2022, although it actually started its operations on January 17, 2019, when its predecessor UAB Paypeer, registered in Estonia, had its license as a virtual currency exchange revoked. Currently, according to the Payeer website, the company has official registration in the Republic of Paraguay.