U.s. department of justice’s money laundering and asset recovery section, u.s. attorney’s office in seattle, and the national cryptocurrency enforcement team have been involved in a recent investigation into binance. the investigation has included asking financial firms to provide records of communication with the cryptocurrency exchange. it is believed that the doj’s crypto enforcement team has been building a case against binance executives, including its ceo changpeng zhao, prior to the formation of the team in 2021.
Investigation into binance began in 2021 and has been ongoing since then. the commodities future trading commission (cftc) has also been conducting a separate investigation regarding possible insider trading at binance since 2021. binance ceo changpeng zhao made a statement on binance’s chinese blog, and the company has been open about working with law enforcement to find hackers and freezing stolen funds.
Investigation into binance is likely due to the tumultuous year the crypto markets have had, and the scrutiny of the companies which have managed to remain in business. binance has shown commitment to security and compliance by investing in their team and the tools and technology used to detect and deter illegal activity. binance has also been hiring former federal investigators and chief compliance officer sam gambaryan touted the company’s handling of more than 47,000 law enforcement requests in 2022. the cftc is trying to determine if the company had granted u.s. derivatives traders access to its exchange over its u.s.-based arm, binance us. binance took to twitter to refute the reuters report, claiming it to be an attack on its law enforcement team.
https://decrypt.co/118753/binance-federal-investigation-justice-department
