France investigates Binance for money laundering and illegal customer prospecting

Binance is under preliminary investigation for illegal customer prospecting and money laundering, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Friday, the latest in a series of setbacks for the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

The investigation is into “unauthorized exercise of the profession of providing virtual asset services” and “aggravated money laundering,” the indictment said in a statement.

A Binance spokesperson said that the company received a “site visit last week from the relevant authorities” in France. The exchange “was fully cooperative and we have fulfilled our obligations accordingly,” the company said.

“Information about our users is held securely and is only disclosed to government authorities after proper and documented justification has been received,” the spokesperson added.

Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, were charged last week by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC, the body that regulates capital markets in the United States) with 13 offenses, including operating an unregistered exchange and failure to restrict its platform to US customers. Binance disputes SEC allegations.

Zhao, a billionaire and one of the most influential figures in the cryptocurrency world, tweeted on Friday, in response to a story about the French investigation, the term “FUD” — slang used in the cryptocurrency universe to refer to news stories perceived as negative . “It’s not ‘news’,” he wrote.

Source: Terra

Rose

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