FinCen issued an order against Binance over its link with Bitzlato
Data from FinCen noted that Binance was one of the 3 counterparties of the Bitzlato Crypto exchange as a part of money laundering activities.
Recently the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an order that identifies the crypto exchange Bitzlato Limited (Bitzlato) acted as a middleman for many illegal crypto transactions in link with money laundering.
Order stated:
“(data) identifies the virtual currency exchange Bitzlato Limited (Bitzlato) as a “primary money laundering concern” in connection with Russian illicit finance.”
As we know, Russia is under international trade sanctions, which were imposed by many countries including the US as a part of Russia vs Ukraine conflict. So the transaction of crypto funds via Bitzlato to Russia was against the financial sanctions, which were imposed on Russia.
According to FinCen, In between 2018 to 2022, the top counterparties of the Bitzlato were: (1) Binance, a VASP; (2) the Russia-connected darknet market Hydra; and (3) the alleged Russia-based Ponzi scheme “TheFiniko”.
So, now Binance is on the radar of the US authorities. However, Binance exchange doesn’t provide any service in the United States directly but still, it will reach the US authorities on this matter.
A Binance spokesperson stated:
“Binance is pleased to have provided substantial assistance to international law enforcement partners in support of this investigation. This exemplifies Binance’s commitment to working collaboratively with law enforcement partners worldwide.”
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) also responded to this news and suggested people ignore this negative news as a FUD.
In the past, it has been found many times that the Binance exchange helped other crypto companies to fight against hack attacks. Many times the exchange successfully freezed the hacked or stolen funds on its platform. Also, the Binance team helped govt agencies catch some bad actors linked with illegal Crypto transactions.
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