USA: The largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance
[ad_1]
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, admitted to engaging in money laundering, circumvention of sanctions and other illegal activities as part of a settlement with the American government. Zhao will face criminal charges and the company will pay over $4 billion. penalties.
As announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland and Finance Minister Janet Yellen during a joint press conference, the settlement is the result of a multi-year investigation by the prosecutor’s office into Binance’s failure to comply with regulations against money laundering and other financial crimes.
It showed that the company knowingly accepted money and served clients subject to sanctions (including Russia, occupied Ukraine, North Korea and Iran), hackers using the stock exchange as a way to launder profits from cyber ransom, people selling child pornography, and terrorists from Al-Qaeda, Islamic State and Hamas. The company allegedly deliberately failed to report these transactions to authorities for years. Garland said that knowledge on the subject was so widespread at the company that one of its employees joked that Binance’s advertising slogan should be: “If laundering drug money is too hard for you these days – come to Binance.” Garland added that, among other things, It is precisely because of serving criminals that Binance has become the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.
As part of the settlement, the company’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao – a Chinese-Canadian businessman known as “CZ” – and its chief regulatory compliance officer, Samuel Lim, faced criminal charges and pleaded guilty. Zhao simultaneously resigned from his position.
The company will have to pay a total fine of USD 4.3 billion. This is one of the largest penalties for corporations in US history. Zhao himself agreed to pay $50 million.
Binance is another large cryptocurrency exchange that has come into conflict with the law, and its CEO has faced criminal charges. Previously, the same fate befell FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of defrauding investors and stealing money entrusted to him.
From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)
osk/kb/
[ad_2]
Source link
