U.S. federal prosecutors asked Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, to provide extensive internal records about its anti-money laundering checks, documents, and communications involving its CEO as part of their money laundering probe.
The Justice Department has asked the exchange to turn over communications between Zhao and other executives regarding the “unlawful transactions” and recruitment of clients in the US.
U.S. authorities, the people said, are investigating whether Binance violated the Bank Secrecy Act. This requires crypto exchanges to register with the Treasury Department and comply with anti-money laundering requirements if they conduct “substantial” business in the United States. The law, designed to protect the U.S. financial system from illicit finance, provides jail terms of up to 10 years.
“Another story today about a crypto company receiving an inquiry from a regulator. A request to VOLUNTARILY share certain information back in 2020, which we did. Important for the industry to build trust with regulators. My chat messages are semi-public anyway”, says the CEO.