U.S Senators Accuse Binance Of Facilitating $10 Billion In Payments To Criminals

  • U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Roger Marshall recently penned a letter to Binance chief Changpeng Zhao. 
  • The letter claimed that the crypto exchange was a hotbed of illegal financial activity. 
  • The lawmakers accused the exchange of facilitating $10 billion in payments to criminals and sanction evaders. 
  • CEO Changepeng Zhao has been asked to submit documents pertaining to his firm’s finances and policies. 

Binance has once again come under scrutiny, this time from multiple lawmakers in the United States. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Roger Marshall recently penned a strongly worded letter to Changpeng Zhao, the founder, and CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange. The letter was also addressed to Brian Shroder, the CEO of BAM Trading Services. BAM trading operates Binance U.S.

Binance is a hotbed of illegal financial activity

The letter by the U.S. Senators highlighted the investigations that Binance is currently facing, including criminal sanctions evasion, money laundering conspiracy, and unlicensed money transmission. The lawmakers cited the concerns surrounding the crypto exchange’s finances and mysterious corporate structure while asking for more transparency. 

What little information about Binance’s finances is available to the public suggests that the exchange is a hotbed of illegal financial activity that has facilitated over $10 billion in payments to criminals and sanctions evaders.”

The senators accused Binance and its related entities of purposefully evading U.S regulators, facilitating money laundering and sanctions evasion, in addition to going to great lengths to hide basic financial information. To that end, the lawmakers have asked Changpeng Zhao and Brian Shroder to provide balance sheets of the crypto exchange and its subsidiaries and details of an alleged plan to distract regulators by setting up a new entity.

Furthermore, the senators cited a report which claimed that Zhao had told his staff that he wanted “no kyc.”. All communications pertaining to this incident have been requested. The senators have also asked for copies of all internal anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) and know-your-customer (KYC) policies and procedures used by Binance and its subsidiaries. 

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