Binance pleads guilty, fined $4.3B over widespread U.S. law violations
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2023-11-21T23:38:00
Federal agencies hit Binance with more than $4.3 billion in penalties, prompted the resignation of its chief executive officer, and imposed multiple compliance monitorships on the virtual currency exchange as punishment for its repeated and intentional violations of U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) laws, sanctions, and other regulations.
The Department of Justice (DOJ); Treasury Department, including the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC); and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) made the announcements at a joint press conference Tuesday.
“Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in part because of the crimes it committed—now it is paying one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Related articles
-
PremiumCFTC’s Pham critical of agency stances on CCO liability, self-disclosure credit
Caroline Pham, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said compliance officers have a lot to worry about if they or their firms are subject to CFTC enforcement during her fireside chat at CW’s Financial Crimes Summit.
-
OpinionBinance CEO got 4 months in prison. FTX’s got 25 years. Was compliance the difference?
Why the wild disparity in the sentences of Binance’s Changpeng Zhao and FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried? Aaron Nicodemus argues the performance of the compliance teams at the two cryptocurrency exchanges was as big a contrast as the penalties earned by their respective founders.
-
News BriefFINTRAC fines Binance $4.4M over AML/CFT violations
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada imposed a penalty of approximately CAD$6 million (U.S. $4.4 million) against crypto platform Binance over alleged noncompliance with the country’s anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism law.
More from Regulatory Enforcement
-
News BriefCVS hit with nearly $1 billion fine in Omnicare false claims verdict
CVS has vowed to appeal $948.8 million in fines and damages imposed by a judge Tuesday on its Omnicare unit, for billing Medicare for tens of thousands of false claims.
-
PremiumIn 17 years, Discover Financial never managed to clean up a billion dollar mess
Federal banking regulators have laid the blame for Discover Financial Services charging merchants $1 billion in excessive credit card fees over 17 years squarely at the feet of company executives.
-
News BriefCFPB drops $95M enforcement action against Navy Federal, without explanation
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has dropped a $95 million enforcement action against Navy Federal Credit Union, the latest regulatory pullback by the agency under President Donald Trump.