Binance collaborates with US authorities in money laundering investigation
(Twitter / @cz_binance)
The world's largest bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is collaborating with US authorities in investigations against money laundering and suspected tax felonies.
The company’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, said this in to news that Binance would allegedly be the subject of such inquiries.
Zhao referred to the title of a Bloomberg post, according to which Binance "faces" investigations for money laundering and tax crimes in the United States.
The executive assured that "the title" of the news is wrong, although the content does expose the company's collaboration with US agencies in their inquiries.
Specifically, the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would be behind the investigations to the exchange, according to the same medium.
According to the publication, anonymous sources with knowledge of the situation on Binance corroborated the investigation.
However, they alleged that both institutions refused to comment on the matter.
Although Zhao denies that the investigation accuses his company of any crime related to money laundering or tax evasion, it is known that the platform has been used for these purposes in the past.
Earlier this year, a cybersecurity report established that a large part of the bitcoins perceived by criminals who operate the Ryuk ransomware were laundered on Binance and the Huobi exchange.
Binance has been closely linked to various investigations and speculations about this business recently.
In March of this year, it was revealed that the company was under the scrutiny of US authorities for allegedly providing unauthorized services in the North American country.
Although it was not known for sure, the investigation could be taking into account an alleged document leaked last November, where Zhao urged the use of VPN to browse the Binance website from the US, thus evading local controls.
The executive denied that alleged strategy to evade US regulations.
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