The head of Binance again criticized regulators in the US and Europe for harassing his cryptocurrency exchange, saying that the problem with bribes is in the bribes themselves, and not in the currency through which they are made.
“When bribes are given in cash, the problem is the bribes; when bribes are made in crypto, the problem is in crypto,” Changpeng Zhao tweeted.
Last week, the Binance administration filed a petition in the US District Court as part of the proceedings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), insisting that it violated securities laws. However, the district judge did not consider the claim of Binance, but immediately rejected the petition. The judge explained this decision by the absence of the need to repeat the obligations of both parties to comply with the rules of ethics, because this does not affect the case.
Recently, EU authorities have begun to suspect that Binance’s subsidiaries in Ireland and Malta may be carrying out illegal activities. In particular, investigators fear that Binance could fake its accounts and transactions, as well as mix income from different countries so as not to raise questions from regulatory and tax authorities. The exchange is also suspected of money laundering and tax evasion.
This Tuesday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) raided Binance’s offices as part of an ongoing investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange’s activities in the country. Binance, in turn, said that it is “cooperating with local authorities” and “focused on compliance with local regulatory standards in order to serve users in Australia in full compliance with them.”
