DOJ demands $4 billion from Binance, potential charges for CEO Zhao, residing in UAE without extradition.
According to Bloomberg News, the US Justice Department is requesting more than $4 billion from Binance Holdings as part of a resolution to an investigation that has been going on against the cryptocurrency exchange for more than a year. But as of yet, there has been no formal confirmation.
As to the media source, negotiations are underway between the Justice Department and Binance on potential criminal charges against Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao in the United States. At the moment, Zhao is living in the United Arab Emirates, which does not have an extradition agreement with the United States.
A Consensus to Close the Criminal Investigation
The probe into the massive cryptocurrency exchange would come to an end with Zhao’s indictment and heavy sentence. The probe against Binance covers potential bank fraud, sanctions violations, and money laundering, even though it isn’t official.
But according to the article, Binance is also attempting to reduce its exposure in the settlement by pursuing a deferred prosecution deal. The Justice Department would file a criminal complaint against the exchange in the event of a deferred prosecution deal, but the prosecutors would not press charges.
Despite the legal issues, Binance remains dominant.
By volume of trades, Binance is the biggest cryptocurrency exchange. But the exchange’s supremacy also brought regulatory scrutiny to its activities. The two US financial market authorities have already filed legal proceedings against the exchange and its CEO.
The US Justice Department has long been interested in Binance. According to Reuters, federal prosecutors have reportedly been looking into the cryptocurrency exchange since 2018, even though no formal charges have been filed. Prosecutors also requested internal documents from Binance on the company’s anti-money laundering initiatives in 2020.
Just a few weeks after the notorious Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of the now-defunct FTX, was found guilty of seven counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering charges, speculations of a settlement with Binance and criminal accusations against its CEO arose. He now faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in jail.
A lawsuit was been filed against Kraken, a significant cryptocurrency exchange in the US, by the US Securities Market Regulation. Operating an illicit securities trading platform and combining client assets with business funds are among the accusations made against it.
