The US Department of Justice is seeking more than $4 billion from Binance Holdings as part of a bid to end a years-long investigation, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the discussions. .US
Negotiations between the Justice Department and Binance include the possibility that the cryptocurrency platform’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, could face criminal charges in the United States, the article said.
The potentially huge penalty could end a long-running investigation into the company.
Binance has been under the attention of the Department of Justice (DoJ) since at least 2018, Reuters wrote last year.
US federal prosecutors asked Binance in December 2020 to provide internal records about its anti-money laundering controls, along with communications involving Zhao.
The DoJ investigation is one of a series of legal and regulatory issues facing the world’s largest cryptocurrency platform in the United States.
In June, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance and Zhao, accusing them of operating “an elaborate scheme to evade compliance with US federal securities laws.”
Binance denied the SEC’s allegations and said it would “vigorously defend” its platform.
The company has also seen an exodus of executives and a decline in market share this year. At least a dozen executives have left the platform in recent months, including Binance’s chief strategy officer, general counsel and chief product officer.
Binance did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment.
2023-11-21 05:50:57
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