For years, the Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and other senior employees at the cryptocurrency exchange knew that some of its users were criminals.
Yet, despite regular warnings from some of its own employees that some transactions on Binance.com were violating anti-money-laundering laws, the firm was reluctant to cut them off.
Those allegations, which were made public on Tuesday in a sweeping federal case against Binance and Mr. Zhao, show how thoroughly he and his deputies understood that criminals were using their trading platform — and how little they did to stop them.
Mr. Zhao and Binance pleaded guilty on Tuesday to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and agreed to pay hefty fines.
The Binance official acknowledged the report, then tried to persuade the tech company’s representatives to downplay Binance’s role in the transactions, according to the filing, which FinCEN posted on its website on Tuesday.
Persons:
Changpeng Zhao, Zhao, Binance, FinCEN
Organizations:
Binance, Network, Treasury Department, FinCEN, Qassam