Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao waves as he takes the podium for a panel session on the second day of the VivaTech conference in Paris, June 16, 2022.
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PARIS – Days before French police visit Binance In Paris, the cryptocurrency exchange’s top French executive dismissed concerns that the U.S. regulatory allegations were affecting the rest of Binance’s business, likening them to the flapping of a butterfly’s wings.
French Prosecutors Investigate Cryptocurrency Exchange Le Monde for ‘Serious Money Laundering’ Report On Friday, it added in a statement that the company was also under investigation for operating an unauthorized exchange.
Just days before the raid, CNBC asked Binance France President David Prinçay if he was concerned about allegations against the exchange by two of the U.S. financial regulators.
“I don’t care what happens in America,” Prince retorted at the “Proof of Dialogue” summit in Paris. “We’re in Europe, we have a French regulator, a European regulator.”
Prinçay insisted that the Binance.US assets were kept separate from the international exchange, a claim also made by the exchange’s legal team.SEC filed 13 securities charges against Binance last week, Disagreed, arguing that Binance user funds are at “significant risk” of fleeing due to founder Changpeng Zhao’s purported ownership of a group of interlinked Binance-related companies.
The head of Binance France called the U.S. allegations of coin mixing a “car accident.”
“My only concern right now is that we’re focusing too much on crashes instead of driving,” Prince said.
Zhao, the founder of Binance, dismissed the police statement and report as “FUD,” claiming that this is “the norm” of “accidental on-site” inspections.
“We do not comment on the details of law enforcement or regulatory investigations other than to say that information about our users is held securely and is only provided to government officials upon receipt of appropriate written certification,” the exchange said. explain in another statement.
Prince did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the police visit.
Binance faces more than a dozen charges from the SEC and a slew of similar charges from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The Justice Department is also reportedly investigating the exchange, according to the SEC complaint.
