Reuters conducted a large-scale study of the work of the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance. According to the agency, the anti-money laundering procedures at the site are much weaker than stated.
According to Reuters, the internal compliance department advised Binance management not to work with users from Russia, Ukraine, and five other countries. The reason was given as “extremely high risk of money laundering” by criminals from these countries using cryptocurrency exchanges. However, Binance management ignored these recommendations.
At the same time, the CEO of the exchange, Changpeng Zhao, constantly declares the high level of user identification (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) procedures. Reuters also accuses the site of “systematic disregard for the requirements of regulators to provide data.”
According to journalists, at least four requests from regulators and business partners regarding the activities of Binance were ignored. In addition, several former employees of the exchange said that they warned Zhao about weak KYC procedures, but he did not pay attention to these warnings. Reuters also has evidence of Binance refusing to cooperate with the German police in the case of money laundering.
The Reuters report did not go unnoticed by the stock exchange. A Binance representative stressed that the investigation of the publication is based on outdated and often incorrect data. commented article and Binance CEO:
“It’s just FUD. Journalists spoke to people fired from Binance and partners with whom we did not have a relationship. They are trying to denigrate us. We are fully focused on anti-money laundering procedures. We welcome working with regulators and ensure transparency. Actions speak louder than words. Thanks for the support!”.
Note that Changpeng Zhao is the richest person in the cryptocurrency industry. At the beginning of the year, Bloomberg estimated his assets at $96 billion, and analysts did not take into account the cryptocurrencies in the wallets of the Binance CEO.
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