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What You Need To Know About the Federal Probe Into Binance

Over the past few months, U.S. attorneys in Seattle have been asking financial firms to hand over records of communication with Binance, according to a weekend Washington Post report. The newspaper cites two anonymous sources who have reviewed the subpoenas.

The investigation involves the justice department’s money laundering team, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, and the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, according to a December report by Reuters.

Prosecutors in the U.S. Department of Justice have been at odds on whether the evidence already gathered is sufficient to file charges against Binance executives, according to Reuters, including CEO Changpeng Zhao. Four unnamed sources familiar with the matter told the news agency in December that at least some of the prosecutors involved in the investigation think the government needs to keep building its case before charges are filed.

In the post, Gambaryan touts the company’s handling of more than 47,000 law enforcement requests in 2022. “The brunt of what we do goes on behind the scenes, hidden from the spotlight, and rarely recognized by the media or wider public,” he wrote.

Even as the U.S. investigation has been quietly ongoing, Binance has been packing its compliance department with former federal investigators like Gambaryan, talking publicly about working with law enforcement to find hackers and freezing stolen funds.

Meanwhile, there has also been a separate ongoing investigation by the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) regarding possible insider trading at Binance. News of that investigation was first made public in 2021, the same year the CFTC tried to determine if the company had given U.S. derivatives traders access to its exchange rather than its U.S.-based arm, Binance US.

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