Tag: Binance

DOJ investigates Iran’s alleged use of Binance as exchange sues Wall Street Journal

Binance filed a defamation lawsuit against Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, on the same day the newspaper published a report claiming the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Iran used the world’s largest crypto exchange to move funds in violation of American sanctions.

In the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the company said the newspaper published “false and defamatory statements” about its compliance practices and handling of Iran-linked transactions in an article published on Feb. 23.

In that article, the Journal said Binance fired staff who flagged funds moving through the exchange to sanctioned entities, allegations Binance rejected. The lawsuit says Binance did not fire employees for raising compliance concerns. Staff departures stemmed from alleged breaches of internal data protection policies rather than retaliation, it said.

Source: DOJ investigates Iran’s alleged use of Binance as exchange sues Wall Street Journal

Binance, Zhao win dismissal of lawsuit by victims of 64 attacks | Reuters

A federal judge on Friday dismissed a civil ?lawsuit seeking to hold Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and founder Changpeng Zhao liable for transactions that allegedly helped terrorist groups conduct 64 attacks around the world.

U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan said ?the 535 plaintiffs, including victims and relatives of victims, did not plausibly allege ?that the defendants “culpably associated themselves with these terrorist attacks, participated in them ?as something they wanted to bring about, or sought by their actions to ensure their ?success.” […]

Vargas said that while Binance and ?Zhao ?may have been generally aware of the exchange’s role in terrorist financing, their only relationship to the FTOs was that “they, or their affiliates, had accounts on, and have transacted on, the Binance exchange in an arms’ length relationship.”

The judge also called the length of the ?plaintiffs’ 891-page, 3,189-paragraph complaint “wholly ?unnecessary” despite the “weighty” allegations. ?She said the plaintiffs may amend their complaint.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Source: Binance, Zhao win dismissal of lawsuit by victims of 64 attacks | Reuters

Senator Opens Binance Inquiry Over Alleged Iran, Russia Sanctions Violations – Bloomberg

A senior US senator opened an inquiry into crypto exchange Binance Holdings Ltd. following news reports of its involvement in funneling nearly $2 billion to Iranian government groups designated as terrorist organizations and helping to evade US sanctions on Russian oil. In a Tuesday letter to Richard Teng, Binance’s co-chief executive officer, Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate…

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‘Crypto Enforcement is Dead’: SEC Files to Dismiss Binance Litigation

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a joint stipulation on Thursday afternoon with Binance, its related entities and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, to dismiss, with prejudice, the Commission’s ongoing civil enforcement action against them. Emily Kapur, the co-chair of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan’s blockchain and digital asset litigation, and her partners, Bill Burck and Avi Perry, who are…

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SEC, Binance Seek 60-Day Pause in Crypto Litigation

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Binance asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Monday evening for a 60-day stay of the litigation over the agency’s allegation that the crypto exchange inflated trading volumes, diverted customer funds and misled investors about its market surveillance controls. “On January 21, 2025, new SEC Acting Chairman Mark T. Uyeda…

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Binance Platform Coin Resales Are Securities Trades, SEC Says

New SEC allegations about investor-to-investor sales of Binance Holdings Ltd.’s BNB coin and ten other cryptocurrency assets are sufficient to support claims for operating an unregistered securities exchange, the agency said in a brief. The claims against Binance and two affiliates—BAM Trading Services Inc. and BAM Management US Holdings Inc.—should be allowed to proceed, the Securities and Exchange Commission told…

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Binance Boosts Compliance Staff by 34% Year-Over-Year, Citing Industry’s ‘Rapid Maturation’

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, says it expects to have 645 full-time compliance employees on staff by the end of the year — a 34% increase from last November — as it continues to rapidly build out its compliance department. Including contractors, the crypto exchange already has over 1,000 employees focused on compliance, according to a Friday press statement…

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Binance, CZ’s Lawyers File Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint in SEC Lawsuit

On Monday, they filed a motion to dismiss an amended complaint submitted by the SEC last month. Their filing argues that the amended complaint pays “lip service” to an earlier court ruling that crypto assets are not in and of themselves securities but “refuses to accept the logical conclusion of that ruling—that secondary market resales of the assets long after…

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Pressure campaign secures release of crypto executive from Nigerian prison | Fox Business

Crypto executive Tigran Gambaryan has been released from a Nigerian prison and is back in the U.S. following a high-profile pressure campaign by current and former government officials, members of Congress and state attorneys general who urged the Biden Administration to intervene on his behalf. It’s unclear how much of a priority Gambaryan’s release was for the White House, but on…

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