Court action follows similar CFTC complaint, names CEO Changpeng Zhao in “plan to evade U.S. laws.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission has joined the U.S. government’s assault on Binance, claiming the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange sought to “evade the critical regulatory oversight designed to protect investors and markets.”
A complaint, filed in the federal court for the District of Columbia on Monday, said the company has shown “blatant disregard of the federal securities laws” and that Binance and Changpeng Zhao, its CEO, have “enriched themselves by billions of U.S. dollars while placing investors’ assets at significant risk.”
The 13-count complaint asks for a jury trial and seeks to have Binance “disgorge all ill-gotten gains” and pay civil penalties; it did not specify amounts. It also seeks to have Zhao banned from acting as an officer or director of any company with securities registered with the SEC or that are required to report information to it.
It is not clear whether cryptocurrencies are securities under U.S. law, but the SEC has taken the position that most of them are.
