Following recent secrecy around its finances, Blockchain.com faces prosecution for not filing current accounts. The last time it filed was for 2020—but it was sent only just this month. The case was heard on September 25 in Cardiff Magistrates Court.
Accounts, though related to a business’s tax return, are different from taxes and primarily include financial statements to show the company is in good standing. According to court documents, the company is due to stand at a further hearing on Nov. 25. A conviction for failure to file accounts can result in an unlimited fine.
In the UK, “unlimited fines” refer to the fact that magistrates used to be limited to issuing £5,000 penalties—even for very serious, or “level five” offences. In 2015, that cap was lifted and sentences can now also include 6 month prison terms.
Blockchain.com president Nic Cary and operations executive Al Turnball were issued a summons in May by Companies House for failure to file company accounts on time. The current legal claims are in conjunction with its failure to file accounts for the year ending December 2022.
The $7 billion company was one of the first to provide a digital wallet space for Bitcoin, when it formed in 2011 in England's York. Currently tens of millions of people use its wallet services to store and send crypto, with investors that include Google Ventures and Baillie Gifford.
According to Blockchain.com, which employs hundreds of staff worldwide, it has had “significant reduction in the wider group’s workforce [which has] taken a period of time to stabilise.” The company laid off 150 people in July 2022 and another 110 people in January 2023.
“Blockchain.com takes seriously our compliance with licence and regulatory requirements around the world," a spokesperson told Decrypt. "We have sorted all necessary documents related to this entirely administrative matter and are confident it will be closed quickly.”
Speaking after Companies House promised to enhance its enforcement policies - and was granted new powers to do so by the government in March - director or intelligence, Martin Swain, said: “Where our guidance and support are not enough to encourage users to comply with the law or discourage misuse of our registers, we won’t hesitate to use these new powers available to us.”
Edited by Stacy Elliott.