The Binance.US account records reviewed by Reuters detail each transaction between January and the end of March 2021. A 2021 Binance.US document that described the American exchange's technology architecture identified Silvergate as a payment channel controlled at the time by. In one message, a Binance.US finance manager asked Li to give another Binance.US employee authority to approve payments from the account. Susan Li, the Binance finance executive, had access to the Binance.US Silvergate account, however, along with several senior Binance.US employees, according to the messages and the person with direct knowledge of the transfers. "We do not transfer our funds back and forth," Lee said. 8 that "the extent of our relationship" with is a shared name and a licensing agreement for technology. BAM's beneficial owner is Zhao.īinance.US's chief financial officer, Jasmine Lee, told the Wall Street Journal on Feb. Treasury as a money services business, a category that includes foreign currency traders and money transmitters. Binance.US's operator, California-based BAM Trading Services, is registered with the U.S. regulators away from the global exchange. Reuters reported last year that Binance created Binance.US as a de facto subsidiary in 2019 in order to draw the scrutiny of U.S. The SEC and the Justice Department declined to comment for this article. The money transfers suggest that the global Binance exchange, which is not licensed to operate in the United States, controlled the finances of Binance.US, despite maintaining that the American entity is entirely independent and operates as its "US partner." The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have sought information from Binance and Binance.US about their relationship as part of ongoing investigations into potential breaches of financial rules, including whether Binance is using the American exchange as cover for doing business in the U.S. Key Vision's local registered agent did not respond to requests for comment. A former Silvergate executive confirmed that Key Vision held an account at Silvergate at the time. A 2021 corporate filing by another Binance unit identified CEO Zhao as a director of Key Vision. An unspecified portion of the money was subsequently sent to the Silvergate account of a Seychelles-incorporated firm called Key Vision Development Limited, according to a person with direct knowledge of the transfers. Reuters was unable to trace what became of the $400 million. Li wrote that Merit Peak was a "vendor that facilitated trading" on Binance.US and also provided loans and capital injections to the American exchange.Ĭoley, who left Binance.US later in 2021, didn't respond to questions sent via her legal representatives. In a response to Coley, seen by Reuters, the Binance executive, Susan Li, did not explain the transfers. "Where are those funds coming from?" she wrote in one message. Company messages show the transfers to Merit Peak began in late 2020. exchange's operating company, according to the records. The Binance.US account was registered under the name of BAM Trading, the U.S. Over the first three months of 2021, more than $400 million flowed from the Binance.US account at California-based Silvergate Bank to this trading firm, Merit Peak Ltd, according to records for the quarter, which were reviewed by Reuters. partner and transferred large sums of money from the account to a trading firm managed by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, banking records and company messages show. Binance.US, which says it is independent, says Reuters' information is "outdated"įeb 16 (Reuters) - Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance had secret access to a bank account belonging to its purportedly independent U.S.Reuters couldn't determine whether transfers included U.S.partner's account at Silvergate Bank, messages show A Binance executive had access to U.S.Merit Peak document named Binance CEO Zhao as Manager.partner to trading firm Merit Peak - bank records
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