![]() ![]() Howard Fischer, a partner at New York law firm Moses & Singer, said the CFTC action showed US regulators are taking concerted action against cryptocurrency exchanges, after the US financial watchdog – the Securities and Exchange Commission – said it was considering potential enforcement action against Coinbase. The defendants’ own emails and chats reflect that Binance’s compliance efforts have been a sham and Binance deliberately chose – over and over – to place profits over following the law.” Lowe said: “Defendants’ alleged wilful evasion of US law is at the core of the commission’s complaint against Binance. The complaint alleges that Binance has broken the law by offering commodity derivatives transactions – which effectively place a bet on the price of a cryptocurrency rather than buying it directly – to US customers since July 2019, despite not being registered with the CFTC. Gretchen Lowe, the CFTC’s chief counsel, said Binance had put profits ahead of complying with the law. The CFTC said it was seeking punishments including fines and permanent trading bans. “Defendants have disregarded applicable federal laws while fostering Binance’s US customer base because it has been profitable for them to do so,” the CFTC complaint stated. The complaint alleges that Binance has grown its US business despite publicly stating its intent to block US customers from accessing the platform.Īllegations in the complaint include a claim that even after announcing US restrictions Binance told its most valuable US customers how to avoid its compliance controls. The complaint also charges Binance’s former chief compliance officer, Samuel Lim, with helping Binance commit the violations. The SEC suit against Ripple is in its third year, though a resolution to that case, which involves a single cryptocurrency, is expected soon.The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said it had filed a civil enforcement action in a federal court in Chicago, charging Zhao and three entities that operate the Binance platform with numerous violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. ![]() “This could potentially take a longer time to resolve that the Ripple case which has taken a long time to begin with.” They can be grouped broadly into securities-related-issues around the offering and sale of unregistered securities-the requirement to register with the SEC as an intermediary and all these fraud issues that are really going to be heavily dependent on what the SEC is able to prove based on its investigation of Binance,” says Mike Selig, counsel at New York-based law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher. “There are a handful of different issues that Binance is going to have to defend against in this case. The SEC’s lawsuit follows a March complaint from the CFTC against Binance, Zhao and the company’s former chief compliance officer Samuel Lim, which alleged that the firm put profit over compliance and committed “numerous violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.” Binance’s BNB BNB token lost 22.4% since SEC’s lawsuit was announced, sliding to $233.67 from $301, according to CoinGecko. Binance.US oversees $2.2 billion of crypto holdings, according to the agency.Ĭrypto traders have withdrawn approximately $1.41 billion from Binance’s global exchange in the past seven days, according to data platform DefiLlama. dollars after its banking partners signaled intent to pause conventional-currency services. assets, a move that Binance claimed would effectively end its business in the country.Īfter the SEC filed charges, Binance.US said it would stop offering trading in U.S. ![]() The agency also sought to freeze the company’s U.S. Charges include operating unregistered exchanges, broker-dealers, and clearing agencies misrepresenting trading controls and oversight on the Binance.US platform and the unregistered offer and sale of securities. Last week, the SEC filed a 13-count complaint against Binance, its CEO Changpeng Zhao and U.S. “Given the gravity of the fraud alleged by the CFTC and SEC (which might also be the tip of the iceberg of any criminal indictment), a DOJ prosecutor would certainly seek prison time for anyone convicted or pleading guilty to Binance-related crimes.” “Binance is clearly preparing for a criminal prosecution,” John Reed Stark, former SEC internet enforcement chief, said in a Twitter post. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |