- The Wall Street Journal allegedly got access to Binance internal documents
- There are several schemes to deceive US regulators
Wall Street Journal received access to internal documents and correspondence of Binance. Based on this, they analyzed how the company controlled the US division of BinanceUS and evaded problems with regulators.
Journalists write that Binance programmers in Shanghai controlled the BinanceUS code. This means that they completely controlled the digital wallets of American users. This gave them access to customer data in the US.
Although Binance has stated that it will no longer accept US clients after the launch of the BinanceUS platform, its management has been discussing ways to retain US investors. Among other things, they planned to encourage the use of VPNs.
In the report, the WSJ claims that Binance has not disclosed the full details of BAM Trading (the company that partnered with Binance.US). This market maker in 2019 was actually controlled by CEO Changpeng Zhao. Note that Binance itself was banned from operating in the US in the same year.
The US SEC is now investigating the relationship between Binance.US and two trading firms, Merit Peak Ltd. and Sigma Chain AG. They are also connected with the head of the company, Changpeng Zhao, the journalists say.
The WSJ concludes that these revelations could hurt Binance’s position in the US.
Recall that the winner of the BNB Chain hackathon accuses Binance of plagiarizing an AI service for generating NFTs.
