The SEC Files Charges Against Binance and Changpeng Zhao
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Monday that it is charging Binance Holdings Inc. and its founder Changpeng Zhao with thirteen alleged violations of securities law.
According to the complaint, Binance allegedly “secretly allow[ed] high-value US customers” to trade on the platform, which is forbidden for unregistered exchanges. Besides that, the SEC claims that Zhao had control over customer assets and mingled them with his own accounts.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler commented:
“We allege that Zhao and Binance misled investors about their risk controls and corrupted trading volumes while actively concealing who was operating the platform.”
In response to the action, Binance stated that the complaint was filed after “extensive good-faith discussions to reach a negotiated settlement.”
