Rostin Behnam, Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), recently spoke out about the allegations levied against Binance, claiming that the beleaguered cryptocurrency exchange’s leadership knowingly operated outside of U.S. laws governing the exchange of commodities and futures. 

Speaking at a fireside chat that took place at the DeCenter Spring Conference at Princeton University on April 14, Bloomberg reports that Behnam told those in attendance that Binance leaders had intentionally flouted the rules concerning operations, including knowingly allowing U.S. citizens to participate on the exchange through the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and other obfuscation tools.

The comments stem from the CFTC’s lawsuit against Binance and its CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao for alleged trading violations. Per a report from Cointelegraph, “The CFTC is pressing seven counts for executing unregistered futures transactions, providing illegal commodities options, failure to register as a Futures Commission Merchant, Designated Contract Market or Swap Execution Facility, failure to supervise diligently or implement AML/KYC measures and law evasion.”

(by Tristan Greene)