On April 15, Abu Dhabi regulators have fined cryptocurrency trading company Hayvn Group for failing to establish effective anti-money laundering (AML) controls.

Regulators noted that since October 2018, the company and its former CEO Christopher Flinos have been handling customer transactions through AC Holding, an unlicensed special purpose agency. This means they have hardly implemented any anti-money laundering measures. Emmanuel Givanakis, CEO of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), said on Monday after his team concluded its investigation that the actions were "particularly serious".

Investigators also found that AC Holding provided more than 200 fake documents to bank partners, while Flinos provided false information multiple times when questioned by regulators. The regulator imposed a total of $8.85 million fine on multiple affiliated entities, and the Registration Authority imposed an additional $3.61 million fine on Flinos.