CIMA Decision Notice - AC Holding Limited (In Official Liquidation) (2025-06-13)

Summary

This is a public extract of a CIMA Decision Notice concerning AC Holding Limited (In Official Liquidation), a registered Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP), Registration No. 1973333. It records that CIMA cancelled the entity's VASP registration under section 25(3)(a) of the Virtual Asset (Service Providers) Act (2024 Revision), effective 5 June 2025, following a prior Warning Notice dated 28 March 2025.

• VASP Act breaches: Failures under sections 9(4)(b) and (d) and 9(3)(e) of the VASP Act, namely failing to provide required documents/information and failing to implement AML systems and procedures.
• AML Regulations breaches: Multiple breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations (2023 Revision), including failures in enhanced due diligence on unusual/suspicious activity, failure to retain evidence of source-of-funds checks for a politically exposed person, and failure to maintain an independent audit function for AML/CFT/CPF and sanctions controls.
• Public interest finding: CIMA found the registrant was operating in a manner detrimental to the public interest.
• Fit and proper finding: CIMA found that the registrant's majority shareholder was not a fit and proper person.

This is a notice of a completed enforcement action against a single named entity (now in official liquidation) rather than a rule of general application. It does not itself impose new ongoing obligations on other regulated entities, but it confirms the entity's right of appeal to the Cayman Islands court under section 30 of the VASP Act and records the effective date of cancellation. It is primarily informational for the industry, illustrating the standards CIMA expects of VASP licensees regarding AML/CFT compliance and cooperation with the regulator.

Key obligations

• The Registrant (AC Holding Limited, acting through its Joint Official Liquidators) may appeal the cancellation decision to the Cayman Islands court under section 30 of the VASP Act.

Applies to

Virtual Asset Service Providers

Deadlines

• 05 June 2025: Effective date of CIMA's decision to cancel the Registrant's VASP registration.