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对加密货币交易所币安的打击终于来了,内幕曝光

赵长鹏一直坚称,作为一家去中心化的公司,币安没有总部。

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币安创始人兼首席执行官赵长鹏(“CZ”)。图片来源:PIARAS Ó MÍDHEACH—SPORTSFILE/WEB SUMMIT/GETTY IMAGES

美国商品期货交易委员会(Commodity Futures Trading Commission)对币安提起了一项新的民事诉讼,指控这家加密货币巨头犯有一系列罪名,包括未能注册其衍生产品,未能有效阻止或限制位于美国的客户访问其平台。这项诉讼还涉及该公司高管涉嫌犯罪活动的具体细节,美国商品期货交易委员会指控这些高管知情并参与了犯罪交易。

“在公司内部,币安高管、员工和代理人承认,币安平台为潜在的非法活动提供了便利。” 美国商品期货交易委员会在起诉书中写道,并提到了前首席合规官塞缪尔·林(Samuel Lim)和另一名同事在2019年2月进行的对话(关于与激进的恐怖组织哈马斯[Hamas]进行交易)。据称,林告诉这名同事,恐怖分子通常会以“小额资金”形式进行交易,因为“大额资金会构成洗钱”。这位同事回应说:“600美元都买不到一把AK47自动步枪。”

根据起诉书,林还在2020年2月承认,币安的一些客户,包括来自俄罗斯的客户,参与了非法活动。林在关于这些交易的聊天信息中写道:“来吧。他们来这就是为了犯罪。”币安的洗钱报告官当时回应说,“我们看到了非法交易,但我们选择视而不见。”

根据起诉书,在另一个例子中,据称币安的一名员工在2020年7月要求林和另一名同事删除一名客户,该客户在“可疑服务”(被认为是非法的)上的采购金额超过500万美元。林在回复该员工时写道:

“要让他注意资金流动情况,尤其是来自暗网的资金

如俄罗斯大型暗网hydra

他可以开立一个新账户

但必须放弃现在这个账户,这个账户已经被污染了。”

币安的一位发言人告诉《财富》杂志,这一起诉令该公司感到意外。

“美国商品期货交易委员会提起诉讼让人出乎意料,也令人失望,因为我们已经与美国商品期货交易委员会合作了两年多。尽管如此,我们打算继续与美国和世界各地的监管机构合作。”币安的发言人表示。

该发言人表示:“我们在过去两年里进行了大量投资,以确保我们平台上没有活跃的美国用户。在此期间,我们的合规团队从约100人发展到今天的约750名核心和支持合规人员,其中近80人具有执法或监管机构工作经验,约260人具有合规专业证书。”

除了最近美国商品期货交易委员会提起诉讼外,自2018年以来,币安一直因涉嫌违反美国合规法律、反洗钱规定与金融制裁而接受美国司法部的调查。据《华尔街日报》上个月报道,这家加密货币交易所可能准备缴纳超过10亿美元的和解金。

对币安的打击是在加密交易所FTX去年倒闭后进行的。FTX的首席执行官萨姆·班克曼-弗里德(Sam Bankman-Fried)此后面临多项刑事指控,正在等待审判。美国证券交易委员会主席加里·根斯勒(Gary Gensler)在过去几个月对加密货币行业采取了更强硬的态度。去年12月,他将加密货币公司与赌场相提并论,并表示加密货币公司需要“遵守我们经过时间考验的法律”。

除了币安高管之间的聊天细节外,美国商品期货交易委员会的起诉书主要指控该公司未能就其在美国的工作细节进行沟通,并且违反了合规规则。美国商品期货交易委员会还声称在运营的前两年,该公司“没有采取任何措施阻止或限制美国客户在平台上进行交易”。根据起诉书,即使币安在2019年更新了使用条款,阻止美国用户访问其交易平台,但美国用户还是可以利用包括虚拟专用网络(VPN)在内的漏洞访问这些网站。美国商品期货交易委员会进一步声称,首席执行官赵长鹏和林都十分清楚这些漏洞的存在,并且在2020年,也就是币安更新其使用条款一年后,其近18%的客户群仍然位于美国,并引用了该公司的收入报告。

起诉书还指控币安故意混淆其结构,称该公司依赖于“公司实体的迷宫”,这些实体被用来 “模糊币安平台的所有权、控制权和所在地”。根据起诉书,币安的产品包括网站和移动应用程序,其中一些是独立运营的。根据起诉书,币安非常有效地隐藏了其运营结构和公司所在地,“它甚至迷惑了自己的首席战略官”,去年他误称币安是一家“加拿大”公司,后来被发言人更正。赵长鹏一直坚称,作为一家去中心化的公司,币安没有总部。(财富中文网)

译者:中慧言-王芳

美国商品期货交易委员会(Commodity Futures Trading Commission)对币安提起了一项新的民事诉讼,指控这家加密货币巨头犯有一系列罪名,包括未能注册其衍生产品,未能有效阻止或限制位于美国的客户访问其平台。这项诉讼还涉及该公司高管涉嫌犯罪活动的具体细节,美国商品期货交易委员会指控这些高管知情并参与了犯罪交易。

“在公司内部,币安高管、员工和代理人承认,币安平台为潜在的非法活动提供了便利。” 美国商品期货交易委员会在起诉书中写道,并提到了前首席合规官塞缪尔·林(Samuel Lim)和另一名同事在2019年2月进行的对话(关于与激进的恐怖组织哈马斯[Hamas]进行交易)。据称,林告诉这名同事,恐怖分子通常会以“小额资金”形式进行交易,因为“大额资金会构成洗钱”。这位同事回应说:“600美元都买不到一把AK47自动步枪。”

根据起诉书,林还在2020年2月承认,币安的一些客户,包括来自俄罗斯的客户,参与了非法活动。林在关于这些交易的聊天信息中写道:“来吧。他们来这就是为了犯罪。”币安的洗钱报告官当时回应说,“我们看到了非法交易,但我们选择视而不见。”

根据起诉书,在另一个例子中,据称币安的一名员工在2020年7月要求林和另一名同事删除一名客户,该客户在“可疑服务”(被认为是非法的)上的采购金额超过500万美元。林在回复该员工时写道:

“要让他注意资金流动情况,尤其是来自暗网的资金

如俄罗斯大型暗网hydra

他可以开立一个新账户

但必须放弃现在这个账户,这个账户已经被污染了。”

币安的一位发言人告诉《财富》杂志,这一起诉令该公司感到意外。

“美国商品期货交易委员会提起诉讼让人出乎意料,也令人失望,因为我们已经与美国商品期货交易委员会合作了两年多。尽管如此,我们打算继续与美国和世界各地的监管机构合作。”币安的发言人表示。

该发言人表示:“我们在过去两年里进行了大量投资,以确保我们平台上没有活跃的美国用户。在此期间,我们的合规团队从约100人发展到今天的约750名核心和支持合规人员,其中近80人具有执法或监管机构工作经验,约260人具有合规专业证书。”

除了最近美国商品期货交易委员会提起诉讼外,自2018年以来,币安一直因涉嫌违反美国合规法律、反洗钱规定与金融制裁而接受美国司法部的调查。据《华尔街日报》上个月报道,这家加密货币交易所可能准备缴纳超过10亿美元的和解金。

对币安的打击是在加密交易所FTX去年倒闭后进行的。FTX的首席执行官萨姆·班克曼-弗里德(Sam Bankman-Fried)此后面临多项刑事指控,正在等待审判。美国证券交易委员会主席加里·根斯勒(Gary Gensler)在过去几个月对加密货币行业采取了更强硬的态度。去年12月,他将加密货币公司与赌场相提并论,并表示加密货币公司需要“遵守我们经过时间考验的法律”。

除了币安高管之间的聊天细节外,美国商品期货交易委员会的起诉书主要指控该公司未能就其在美国的工作细节进行沟通,并且违反了合规规则。美国商品期货交易委员会还声称在运营的前两年,该公司“没有采取任何措施阻止或限制美国客户在平台上进行交易”。根据起诉书,即使币安在2019年更新了使用条款,阻止美国用户访问其交易平台,但美国用户还是可以利用包括虚拟专用网络(VPN)在内的漏洞访问这些网站。美国商品期货交易委员会进一步声称,首席执行官赵长鹏和林都十分清楚这些漏洞的存在,并且在2020年,也就是币安更新其使用条款一年后,其近18%的客户群仍然位于美国,并引用了该公司的收入报告。

起诉书还指控币安故意混淆其结构,称该公司依赖于“公司实体的迷宫”,这些实体被用来 “模糊币安平台的所有权、控制权和所在地”。根据起诉书,币安的产品包括网站和移动应用程序,其中一些是独立运营的。根据起诉书,币安非常有效地隐藏了其运营结构和公司所在地,“它甚至迷惑了自己的首席战略官”,去年他误称币安是一家“加拿大”公司,后来被发言人更正。赵长鹏一直坚称,作为一家去中心化的公司,币安没有总部。(财富中文网)

译者:中慧言-王芳

A new civil suit against Binance filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission accuses the crypto giant of a slew of counts, including failing to register its derivative products and failing to fence off its services from U.S. customers. But it’s also filled with specific details about alleged criminal activity from the top officers of the company, who the CFTC accuses of knowing about and engaging in criminal transactions.

“Internally, Binance officers, employees, and agents have acknowledged that the Binance platform has facilitated potentially illegal activities,” the CFTC’s complaint reads, citing the example of a conversation between former Chief Compliance Officer Samuel Lim and another colleague in February 2019 about a transaction with Hamas, a militant group. Lim reportedly told the colleague that terrorists typically send “small sums,” because “large sums constitute money laundering.” The colleague responded, “can barely buy an AK47 with 600 bucks.”

Lim also acknowledged in February 2020 that some of Binance’s customers, including those from Russia, were involved in illegal activities, according to the complaint. Lim wrote in a chat message about those trades: “Like come on. They are here for crime.” Money Laundering Reporting Officer at Binance responded at the time, “we see the bad, but we close 2 eyes.”

In another instance, a Binance employee allegedly asked Lim and another colleague in July 2020 to remove a customer who was sourcing over $5 million from “questionable services” believed to be illegal, according to the complaint. Lim wrote in response to the employee:

“Can let him know to be careful with his flow of funds, especially from darknet

like hydra

He can come back with a new account

But this current one has to go, it’s tainted”

A Binance spokesperson told Fortune that the complaint came as a surprise to the company.

“The complaint filed by the CFTC is unexpected and disappointing as we have been working collaboratively with the CFTC for more than two years. Nevertheless, we intend to continue to collaborate with regulators in the US and around the world,” Binance’s spokesperson said.

“We have made significant investments over the past two years to ensure we do not have US users active on our platform. During that period, we went from approximately 100 people in our compliance team to around 750 core and supporting compliance personnel today, including almost 80 personnel with prior law enforcement or regulatory agency experience and approximately 260 personnel with professional certificates in compliance,” the spokesperson said.

Aside from the latest CFTC lawsuit, Binance has been under investigation by the Department of Justice since 2018 for allegedly flouting U.S. compliance laws, anti-money laundering rules, and sanctions. The crypto exchange may be preparing to pay settlement penalties worth more than $1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.

The crackdown on Binance comes after the spectacular collapse of crypto exchange FTX, which folded last year. The CEO of that exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, has since been charged with several criminal counts and is awaiting trial in the U.S. SEC Chair Gary Gensler taken a tougher posture against the crypto industry over the past few months. In December of last year he compared crypto companies with casinos and said they needed to “come into compliance with our time-tested laws.”

Aside from details of chats between top Binance officers, the CFTC’s complaint largely focuses on its alleged failure to communicate details of its work in the U.S., and going against compliance rules, alleging that for the first two years of operations, the company “did not take any steps to limit or restrict the ability of U.S. customers to trade on the platform.” Even after Binance updated its terms of use limiting availability in the U.S. in 2019, customers could use loopholes including virtual private networks (VPNs) to access the sites, according to the suit. It further alleges that CEO Changpeng Zhao and Lim were both fully aware of the existence of these loopholes, and that in 2020, a year after Binance had updated its terms of use, nearly 18% of its customer base was still located in the U.S., citing revenue reports.

The complaint also alleges Binance knowingly obfuscated its structure, saying the company relies on a “maze of corporate entities” that is deliberately designed to “obscure the ownership, control, and location of the Binance platform.” Binance’s offerings include websites and mobile apps, some of which are independently operated according to the complaint. The lawsuit alleges that Binance has become so efficient at hiding its operational structure and the location of its companies, “it has even confused its own Chief Strategy Officer,” who mistakenly called Binance a “Canadian” company last year before being corrected by a spokesperson. Zhao has long insisted that, as a decentralized company, Binance has no headquarters.

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