{"id":5683,"date":"2022-12-12T14:31:49","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T14:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci02b29f6ec00026b1"},"modified":"2022-12-12T14:31:49","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T14:31:49","slug":"doj-split-deciding-charges-binance-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/legal\/doj-split-deciding-charges-binance-investigation","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Justice Department Split Over Decision To Charge Binance In Criminal Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><ul>\n<li>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/fintech-crypto-binance-doj-idUSL8N3321X6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reuters report<\/a> stated that several sources close to the investigation claim there is deliberation on whether to not to file charges against individual Binance executives including CEO Changpeng Zhao.<\/li>\n<li>Others within the investigating entities, which include the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS), have argued in favor of reviewing more evidence. <\/li>\n<li>The investigation, <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/binance-investigated-by-u-s-authorities\">which was launched<\/a> nearly two years ago, comes at a precarious time for the industry as it reels from the <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/legal\/ftx-files-for-bankruptcy-ceo-resigns\">collapse of FTX<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Binance has responded to the Reuters report, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/binance\/status\/1602287184400326656\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stating on Twitter<\/a>, \u201cReuters has it wrong again. Now they&#8217;re attacking our incredible law enforcement team. A team that we&#8217;re incredibly proud of &#8211; they&#8217;ve made crypto more secure for all of us,\u201d with a link below to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.binance.com\/en\/blog\/leadership\/inside-binances-fight-against-crypto-crime-5422427314690193337?ref=AZTKZ9XS&amp;utm_source=BinanceTwitter&amp;utm_medium=GlobalSocial&amp;utm_campaign=GlobalSocial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blog post<\/a> highlighting their claims of the competency of their security team. <\/p>\n<p>According to Reuters\u2019 sources, \u201cdiscussions included potential plea deals,\u201d in relation to charges of \u201cunlicensed money transmission, money laundering conspiracy and criminal sanctions violations.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>As the news source notes, the investing bodies could bring an indictment against Binance and executives at the company, could accept a settlement or could do nothing to the company. Binance has reportedly argued that \u201cA criminal prosecution would wreak havoc on a crypto market already in a prolonged downturn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cryptocurrency exchange responded to the investigation by hiring a former chief of MLARS, Kendall Day, who reportedly has been meeting with Justice officials and communicating with investigators. <\/p>\n<p>Binance is the world\u2019s largest cryptocurrency exchange with a <a href=\"https:\/\/coinmarketcap.com\/exchanges\/binance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">24 hour trading volume<\/a> of about $10.5 billion on the day of reporting. A separate U.S. entity exists, Binance.US. The international company does not have an official headquarters according to the CEO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justice officials are reportedly deciding whether they have sufficient evidence to bring charges against the world\u2019s largest cryptocurrency exchange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2730,"featured_media":3465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[826,1723,311,1785,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-5683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-legal","8":"tag-binance","9":"tag-department-of-justice","10":"tag-doj","11":"tag-investigation","12":"tag-news"},"author_data":{"id":2730,"name":"BtcCasey","nicename":"casey","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/jn_tjlo_400x400.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/binance-now-supports-crypto-purchases-with-credit-cards.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2730"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}