Binance and its US counterpart Binance.US, which were presented as distinct entities, were allegedly linked more closely than previously revealed, allegedly involving personnel, technical teams, and finances.
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Binance had a plan to avoid US regulations
According to news Internal documents and employee reports published by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reveal that Binance and Binance.US, despite their claims to be completely separate entities, shared personnel and finances and a related organization that dealt with the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies.
The report further claimed that Binance created its US platform as a shield from regulators. The move reportedly came after US authorities signaled an upcoming crackdown on unregulated offshore crypto players, while a fifth of Binance’s customers were in the US.
“Fearing the threat of criminal prosecution, Binance embarked on a plan to neutralize US regulations,” the report states. “The strategy centered on building a US platform, Binance.US, that would license Binance’s technology and brand, but otherwise appear to be completely independent of Binance.com.”
The report also shared texts between employees of the two companies from 2019 that illustrate their close involvement. For example, in September 2019, when a Binance employee in Shanghai turned on trading for the US platform minutes before its intended launch, leading to an exchange in a Binance chat group on the messaging app Telegram:
Ninj0r [Binance software developer]: ” Why did the trading start???? It's not time yet!!! Who started the trading? Did we have trading timers set? Who started the trading?”
More messages followed, including another urgent one from Ninj0r: ” Someone started TRADING EARLY. Who did it? At 8:56:09.822 someone manually started trading. Who? Why?” Finally, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao wrote: ” This guy here in Shanghai, mistake.”
Reports suggest that developers in Shanghai initially maintained key software features for Binance.US. The Shanghai developers’ contracts were with Binance, not the US platform, the WSJ reported, citing a person familiar with the agreements.
Additionally, the source code of the US-based digital wallets was maintained by Binance developers in China. This gave Binance, as a global company, access to information about its customers in the United States.
Binance faces increasing scrutiny
Last week, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Roger Marshall they asked Binance and its US partner Binance.US to provide detailed information regarding their trading operations in the face of allegations of illegal practices.
In a letter to CZ and Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder, the senators said the exchange and its affiliates “purposefully” evaded regulators, facilitated the transfer of funds to criminals and individuals evading sanctions, and concealed basic financial information from their customers.
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