March 26 (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors in Manhattan

charged cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin on Tuesday with violating

U.S. anti-money laundering laws, allowing billions of dollars in

illicit funds to be transferred since its founding in 2017.

Seychelles-based KuCoin is one of the world's largest

cryptocurrency exchanges. Prosecutors said the exchange sought

business from U.S. customers without registering with the U.S.

Treasury Department and putting in place procedures to verify

clients' identities as required by U.S. law.

A spokesperson for KuCoin did not immediately reply to a

request for comment.

Prosecutors also charged the exchange's founders, Chinese

nationals Chun Gan, 34, and Ke Tang, 39, with conspiracy. They

remain at large, according to prosecutors.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission separately

filed a civil lawsuit against KuCoin alleging it failed to

register its futures and swaps activities with the regulator.

KuCoin in December agreed to block New York users from its

platform and pay $22 million to settle the state's lawsuit

accusing it of failing to register there.

KuCoin trails Binance, Coinbase and Kraken among

cryptocurrency spot exchanges on factors including traffic,

liquidity and trading volumes according to the data company

CoinMarketCap.