Block Agrees in Principle to Pay $764 Million to Resolve DOJ Money-Laundering Probe Under Three-Year Deferred Prosecution Deal
Block, Inc., the financial technology company led by Jack Dorsey and parent of the Cash App payment service and the Square merchant business, disclosed in its third-quarter report (Form 10-Q) filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on November 3 that it reached an agreement in principle with the Department of Justice in October to pay about $764 million to resolve the department's investigation into its anti-money-laundering controls.
Under the proposed terms, the two sides would enter a three-year deferred prosecution agreement: the Justice Department's charge that Block failed to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act would be deferred for three years, and if Block fully complies with the agreement over that term, the department will move to dismiss the charge with prejudice. The gross monetary component of the resolution is about $964 million, reduced to a net payment of about $764 million after credits for earlier regulatory settlements. Block said it had accrued the full $764 million as of September 30, up from $526 million accrued at the end of June.
Block cautioned that the resolution remains subject to a final agreement satisfactory to all parties and to court approval, that it cannot assure a final agreement will be reached on those terms, and that it is reasonably possible the final terms could result in losses above the amount accrued.
The investigation dates to 2023, when short seller Hindenburg Research alleged that Cash App inflated its user numbers with duplicate and fraudulent accounts and that weak identity checks allowed criminals to use the platform for scams and money laundering. The Justice Department and the SEC opened inquiries, and Block rejected the report's findings as inaccurate and misleading. SEC staff told Block in March 2026 that their investigation had concluded and that they did not intend to recommend enforcement action. New York's financial regulator fined Block $40 million in April 2025 after finding serious gaps in its compliance systems, including a backlog of suspicious-transaction alerts that had grown from about 18,000 in 2018 to more than 169,000 by 2020.
In the same quarterly results, Block reported third-quarter net income of $566 million, less than the proposed net settlement payment. Overall gross profit rose 22% to $3.24 billion, with Cash App gross profit up 27% to $2.07 billion and Square gross profit up 14% to $1.16 billion. Bitcoin gross profit fell 50% to $52 million from $104 million a year earlier, while bitcoin revenue declined 11% to $1.8 billion, a drop the company attributed primarily to reducing fees on certain bitcoin transactions. (Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Washington 的美国司法部大楼。GSM联邦机构固定图库照片，摄影 APK，CC BY 4.0，来源 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: U.S. Department of Justice headquarters in Washington. GSM federal fixed image library photo by APK, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
