Binance accused of ‘web of deception’ in US
Crypto giant Binance has been accused of engaging in a “web of deception” as it was hit with another lawsuit by US financial regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the trading platform and its founder Changpeng Zhao ignored the rules meant to protect investors to keep operating in the US.
Both the company and Mr Zhao are accused of mishandling customer funds. Binance said it would defend the platform “vigorously”.
The complaint from the SEC is the second lawsuit filed against the firm this year and follows promises by the US to police the crypto industry more aggressively. The company, which was founded in 2017 and is active in more than 100 countries, denied that customer money had been at risk.
“While we take the SEC’s allegations seriously, they should not be the subject of an SEC enforcement action,” Binance said, adding it had been in discussions with the regulator.
Digital asset
It said the legal action was an example of regulators’ “misguided and conscious refusal to provide much-needed clarity and guidance to the digital asset industry”.
Binance, which is registered in the Cayman Islands, is known as the world’s largest platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. The SEC’s complaint outlined 13 charges, accusing the company and Mr Zhao of unlawfully soliciting investors and customers, misrepresenting the degree of trading on the platform and misleading the public about its oversight.
Both the crypto firm and its founder are also alleged to have diverted customer funds to companies controlled by Mr Zhao, a Chinese-Canadian billionaire known in the industry as CZ. Mr Zhao and Binance “engaged in an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure, and calculated evasion of the law,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said.
