Reuters convicted Binance in concealing information from regulators

Binance has repeatedly hid information from regulators, neglected KYC procedures and acted contrary to the recommendations of its own compliance department. This is stated in a large -scale investigation of Reuters.

The agency’s interlocutors said that Binance abandoned the idea of ​​opening a unit on Malta and getting a license of a local financial regulator when she learned about the strict AML protocols and the requirements for disclosing information.

In 2019, the exchange was privately notified by MFSA that she refused her plan, but continued to argue that her activities were “regulated by the laws of Malta”. In 2020, the Office reported the absence of a Binance license to work in jurisdiction. Soon the information was confirmed by the head of Chanpen Zhao.

The agency noted that Binance “at least four times” refused to provide detailed reports on their activities when this information was requested by regulators or partners. In particular, we are talking about the corporate structure and finance of the company.

For example, when Binance began to offer tokenized shares in Italy, the local regulator – Consob – demanded that the product compliance with the product to local legislation, since he considered tools as financial.

In response to the request of the commission, the director of compliance with the regulatory requirements of Binance Samuel Lim said that the company does not provide “investment services”, and its activities are regulated by Swiss legislation. In a conversation with Reuters, the representative of the financial regulator of Switzerland emphasized that the local division of the exchange “has no permission”.

Journalists said that the documents that fell into their hands indicate the fears that Binance employees, including Lima, have repeatedly expressed about the weak checks of KYC. Several interlocutors of Reuters said that Zhao reported this.

However, the head of the exchange allegedly wanted KYC to be at all, “insisting that users should be able to” trade within ten minutes after registration “.

Reuters sources noted that Limu did not have enough competence to manage a compliance department of such a large-scale structure. One of the former employees of the company emphasized that the top managers were “afraid” of Zhao and were inferior to his requests.

At least in three countries, including Russia and Ukraine, Binance acted contrary to her own scoring risk. The last two was assigned an “extreme” level. Such a rating means that the company should not serve customers from these jurisdictions.

Reuters, citing available documents, claims that these grades were “manually adjusted” – the countries were given a “high” risk level https://gagarin.news/ua/news/bitcoin-hater-peter-schiff-is-ready-to-sell-his-bank-for-btc/ .

FORKLOG requested a comment from Binance representatives, but did not receive an operational answer.

To the question of the reliability of Reuters information, Binance said that the company does not comment on the articles in the media. According to the representative of the exchange, its internal risk ratings are not static, but are constantly changing. Scoring depends on a number of variables, including the results of meetings with government officials, new normative acts, actions of competitors and others.

The agency also said that Binance refused to cooperate with German law enforcement agencies related to money laundering. The police believed that through the company’s platform scammers and terrorists carried out illegal activities.

Chanpen Zhao called the FUD agency investigation. According to him, journalists are trying to denigrate the company, “communicating with people who were fired from Binance, and partners who have not developed relations with the exchange”.

FUD. Journalists Talking to People Who Let Go From Binance and Partners that Vork Out Trying to Smear Us. We are Focused on Anti-Money Laundering, Transparent and Welcome Regulation. Action Speaks Louder than Words. Thank you for your unwaves! 🙏

– Cz 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) January 21, 2022

Throughout 2021, the regulatory authorities of a number of countries, including the Netherlands, Italy, Great Britain, Poland, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Africa, published warnings regarding Binance or took measures regarding the exchange.

Recall that in December the Ontario Securities Commission announced the absence of a license from Binance.

Read the FORKLOG Bitcoin News in our Telegram-cryptocurrency news, courses and analytics.