The United States' advance against Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) continues. The CFTC issued a fine approaching $3 billion.
In a press release issued on Monday, December 18, the CFTC, the body in charge of commodity regulation, indicated that Binance and CZ were fined monetarily for having violated the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.
The CFTC fine is spread across a $150 million civil monetary penalty against CZ and a $1.35 billion fine against Binance. The exchange is also required to return $1.35 billion “in ill-gotten transaction fees.” In total, Binance must pay the CFTC USD 2.7 billion.
The CFTC sanction against the largest cryptocurrency exchange on the market and its founder adds to the monetary sentence that they already had to pay to the Department of Justice (DoJ) last November.
On November 21, CZ and Binance agreed with the DoJ to pay a fine of USD 4.3 billion against the exchange and USD 50 million against the businessman. This, after Zhao acknowledged having violated anti-money laundering restrictions and resigned from Binance.
The fine against Binance of USD 4.3 billion is the highest monetary sanction that has been imposed by the United States Department of Justice against a company in the Bitcoin ecosystem. It is also one of the largest fines ever issued against a financial company.
Adding up the fines, the US government has imposed a total of $7.2 billion on Binance and its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao.
The CFTC not only fined Binance and Changpeng Zhao. Binance's former chief compliance officer, Samuel Lim, was also fined monetarily by the commodities regulator.
Therefore, Lim must pay $1.5 billion to the US government “for aiding and abetting the Binance violations.” Also, “for engaging in activities outside the US to deliberately evade or attempt to evade the law.”
The US CFTC took advantage of its statement to recall the crimes committed by Binance and CZ. Among them, “ignoring and hiding” that they had American clients, even while being aware of the regulatory requirements of the United States.
“Zhao and other members of Binance senior management actively facilitated violations of the law, including instructing US customers to evade compliance checks,” the regulator says.
Binance and its former CEO are at the center of attention from regulators in the United States and even other countries, where the exchange's operations have been declining. Although the new managers assure that the company “is stronger than ever.”
