| 1. | VARA may, in its sole and absolute discretion, take enforcement actions against any Entity in the event of any of the following—
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| | a. | for violation of any law (including the Dubai VA Law and Federal AML-CFT Laws); |
| | b. | for any violation of these Regulations, Marketing Regulations, Rules or Directives; |
| | c. | on any ground on which VARA might refuse to issue a Licence under these Regulations; |
| | d. | for Good Cause; |
| | e. | on any ground which VARA deems to have a negative impact on the reputation of the UAE, the Emirate or VARA's reputation as a competent regulator; and |
| | f. | other grounds determined by VARA in exercising its powers, performing its functions or fulfilling its objectives under the Dubai VA Law.
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| 2. | Such enforcement actions may include but are not limited to—
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| | a. | issuing written reprimands; |
| | b. | issuing enforcement notices requiring non-compliance to be rectified within a specified period of time; |
| | c. | issuing a notification to cease and desist from undertaking or continuing any and all activities associated with the violation of these Regulations, Marketing Regulations, Rules or Directives; |
| | d. | limiting or revising the scope of any Virtual Assets or VA Activities under a Licence; |
| | e. | suspending or revoking a Licence and/or VARA approvals, or any commercial trade licence(s) in coordination with the competent authority; |
| | f. | requiring a VASP or Entity to immediately cease or suspend any VA Activity, Marketing or other business activity, either for a specified or indefinite period of time; |
| | g. | requiring any Entity to stop or refrain from doing or continuing to do any acts and seek a preliminary injunction or other legal means when necessary to restrain such Entity, when deemed by VARA to be in the public interest; |
| | h. | requiring any Entity to issue a public statement admitting that it has violated any Regulations, Marketing Regulations, Rules or Directives; |
| | i. | requiring any Entity to announce the suspension of any and all activities associated with the violation of these Regulations, Marketing Regulations, Rules or Directives to the public as soon as practicable, and clearly stating non-compliance with these Regulations, Marketing Regulations, Rules or Directives as the reason for such suspension in the body of the announcement; |
| | j. | imposing fines or other civil penalties in accordance with Schedule 3 of these Regulations and/or Schedule 1 of the Marketing Regulations, or otherwise published by VARA from time to time; |
| | k. | undertaking additional supervision, monitoring or reporting requirements; and |
| | l. | any other enforcement action determined by VARA.
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| 3. | VARA may impose fines, civil penalties or other enforcement actions directly against the Responsible Individuals of a VASP. |
| 4. | VARA will consider the full circumstances of each case when determining whether or not to issue a fine and the amount thereof. VARA may do this either in conjunction with, or independently of, any other type of enforcement action as set out in Regulation IX.C.2. The types of factors which will be evaluated include—
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| | a. | the nature, seriousness and impact of the violation; |
| | b. | whether any action constitutes a violation of a Market Offence; |
| | c. | the conduct of the Entity after the violation and throughout any investigation or examination by VARA; |
| | d. | the previous disciplinary record and compliance history of the Entity or relevant individual(s), and in particular whether the case involves a first-time violation under No. 3 or No. 4 of Schedule 3 of these Regulations (in which case VARA reserves the right to consider not issuing an immediate fine, and instead mandate effective remedial action to address the impact of the violation); |
| | e. | the interpretation and application of VARA published materials including Guidance, industry codes and other such materials as may be published from time to time; and |
| | f. | any action taken by VARA or by other domestic or international regulatory bodies in similar cases.
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| 5. | In the event of an Entity's continued violation of these Regulations, Marketing Regulations, Rules, Directives and/or Licence conditions, VARA may, in its sole and absolute discretion, impose periodic penalties on the Entity in addition to any fine and/or any other enforcement action(s) imposed in respect of such violation. The amount and frequency of such periodic penalties shall be determined by VARA, with reference to the full circumstances of each case and its assessment of all factors which VARA may consider to be relevant, including but not limited to factors set out in Regulation IX.C.4. |
| 6. | Grievances. VARA may establish a committee or other body to hear grievances or complaints in respect of any enforcement action it has taken, the details of which shall be published by VARA from time to time.
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