Binance.US registered with the Treasury in 2019 the main exchange never did so. Clients there are instead directed to a separate U.S.-based exchange called Binance.US, which also is controlled by Zhao, regulatory filings show. It has declined to give details of the ownership or location of its main exchange, which has not accepted customers in the United States since mid-2019. Gonzalez and Paul, Weiss did not respond to requests to comment.īinance has an opaque corporate structure. Binance Holdings owns the Binance trademark and, according to regulatory filings, is owned by Zhao. The Justice Department's 2020 letter was addressed to Binance Holdings Ltd., a company in the Cayman Islands, and to Roberto Gonzalez, a Washington-based attorney at law firm Paul, Weiss. BitMEX now says it "fully committed to operating its business in compliance with all applicable laws" and has made "substantial investments" in its compliance programme. BitMEX agreed to pay a $100 million fine to settle separate charges for breaching the Act. That month, the founders of another exchange, BitMEX, pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and were later sentenced to up to two and a half years of probation. In February, the Justice Department established a national cryptocurrency enforcement team to "tackle the growth of crime involving these technologies," with a focus on exchanges. SCRUTINYĬrypto exchanges are under increasing scrutiny in the United States, where top government figures including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this year have publicly backed greater regulation of the sector. Until mid-2021, Binance customers could trade crypto by registering with just an email address.īinance disputed Reuters' findings, calling them "outdated." The exchange said it is "driving higher industry standards" and seeking to "further improve our ability to detect illegal crypto activity on our platform." It said it did not consider Reuters' calculations of illicit fund flows to be accurate. Reuters found that the gaps in Binance's compliance programme enabled criminals to launder at least $2.35 billion in illicit funds through the exchange, which also served traders in Iran despite U.S. Born in China and educated in Canada, where he holds citizenship, Zhao told Bloomberg in March that he will be based for the "foreseeable future" in Dubai, which that month granted Binance a license to conduct some operations.Ī series of Reuters articles this year revealed how Binance drove its explosive growth while keeping weak customer checks and withholding information from regulators. "Binance is requested to produce all documents and materials that are responsive to this letter in its possession, custody, or control," it said.īinance was launched by Zhao, known as CZ, in Shanghai in 2017 and as of July controlled over half of the world's crypto trading markets, processing transactions worth more than $2 trillion that month. The letter made 29 separate requests for documents produced since 2017, covering the company's management, structure, finances, anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance, and business in the United States. A Binance spokeswoman told Bloomberg at the time, "We take our legal obligations very seriously and engage with regulators and law enforcement in a collaborative fashion." The probe's existence was reported last year by Bloomberg but until now little has been known about it. The request reveals the broad scope of the U.S. A Department spokesman declined to comment. He didn't say how Binance responded to the Justice Department request.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |