The CFTC spells it out plainly: “Zhao answers to no one but himself.” The suit cites him personally approving a $60 office furniture expense in January 2021. The suit notes that these communications show that CZ is “responsible for all major strategic decisions, business development, and management of the Binance enterprise,” including “whether and how to implement and enforce anti-money laundering (AML) controls and Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures.”ĬZ’s hands-on involvement isn’t limited to high-level decisions. Without disclosing their methods, the CFTC somehow managed to obtain a litany of internal Binance communications, including private chats and the contents of CZ’s own phone.

While we encourage you to read the entire suit, our coverage will focus on Lowe’s reference to the defendants’ communications.

The suit seeks disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further such violations.ĬFTC Chairman Rosnim Behnam said: “For years, Binance knew they were violating CFTC rules, working actively to both keep the money flowing and avoid compliance.” Gretchen Lowe, deputy director of the CFTC’s enforcement division, added that “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.” The CFTC says the accused “violated core provisions” of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations governing commodities trading by, amongst other crimes, offering unregistered derivatives products to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against multiple Binance entities, as well as its founder Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao and its former chief compliance officer Samuel Lim. On Monday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil suit in the U.S. Binance has been slapped with a civil suit accusing the world’s largest digital asset exchange of taking a “calculated, phased approach” to violate U.S.

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