Court approves settlement agreement of Binance & CFTC: $2.7B fine
On behalf of the court order, the former Binance CEO will pay an additional $ 150 million fine to the CFTC body.
Binance, the top-ranked crypto exchange, is very near to completing its settlement with the CFTC body.
Today the US court judge Manish Shah approved the settlement agreement between Binance Exchange and the US Commodities regulatory body CFTC.
Under this agreement, Binance will pay a $1.35 billion fine to the CFTC body and an additional $1.35 billion which was collected by the exchange in the form of trading fees from the US customers.
Binance co-founder & former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) will pay $150 million additional amount as a fine for the violation of the Money Laundering Act.
In addition to all these penalty charges, the court ordered the Binance exchange to establish a Board of Directors with independent members, a Compliance Committee, and an Audit Committee.
We already reported that Binance agreed to settle the case with the US regulatory bodies with a net of $4.3 billion and also to comply with the agreement, CZ stepped down from the CEO role.
According to legal experts, CZ may face jail punishment for up to 10 years, while some reports claim that he will face only 18 months of jail punishment.
Last month the court rejected CZ’s request to allow him to go to the UAE to meet with family. CZ’s request was denied because the US enforcement agencies requested the court not to allow CZ to go to the UAE because of “flight risks”.
As we know the US has no treaty with UAE for criminal extradition, so once CZ goes to UAE then he will return on his own decision.
Now the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) body only left with its charges against Binance and it will be interesting to see how the Binance team will tackle the SEC’s allegations because SEC’s majority of the charges are against Binance from the point of unregistered securities offerings, while there are no rules for cryptocurrencies in the US.
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