Cryptocurrency: Binance is the subject of a legal investigation in France
After the United States, France has Binance in its sights. The French branch of the world’s leading cryptocurrency trading platform is the subject of a judicial investigation in Paris for soliciting customers without authorization and for failing to fulfill its obligations to control its customers’ funds.
An investigation targets Binance in France
This preliminary investigation “deals on the one hand with acts of illegal exercise of the function of service provider on digital assets (PSAN), and on the other hand with acts of aggravated money laundering, by competition with investment operations, concealment, conversion, the latter being carried out by perpetrators of offenses having generated profits”detailed the Paris prosecutor’s office at World.
In February 2022, the Specialized Interregional Court (Jirs) of Paris seized the Service of Judicial Financial Investigations (SEJF), which must in particular study in depth the documentary and computer elements collected during the search.
The French branch of Binance is suspected of not having carried out all the checks with its customers to ensure that they were not using the platform for money laundering. In addition, the platform is also accused of having communicated and distributed its services when it did not yet have authorization.
In the United States, Binance and its boss, Changpeng Zhao, have been sued for notably letting American residents use the platform when the company was not registered with the American authorities.
Binance only obtained the PSAN registration from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) on May 4, 2022, allowing it the custody of digital assets and providing it with the right to communicate and promote its services. The AMF prohibits platforms that have not been duly registered from operating in France.
The platform responds
On Twitter, Binance claimed to have “fully cooperated” when the investigators moved to their premises a few weeks ago, ensuring that these “surprise on-site inspections of regulated companies are the norm for banks and now” for crypto-asset platforms. “Binance is not the only cryptocurrency company inspected. It also happened to other well-known crypto companies in Paris”the platform added.
To clarify:
In France, on-site visits by regulators and inspectors, are part of regulatory obligations to which all financial institutions must adhere.
We had an on-site visit last week by the relevant authorities. Binance, as always, was fully collaborative and we met our…
— Binance (@binance) June 16, 2023
