Friday, May 14th 2021
Binance, World's Largest Crypto Exchange, Reportedly Under Investigation by DoJ, IRS
Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange in trade volume, is reportedly being investigated by both the US Department of Justice and the IRS. Ever since its founding in 2017, Binance has been the de-facto castle door towards the world of crypto - that the eyes of justice and fiscal-enforcement are set upon it shouldn't come as a surprise. Incorporated in the Cayman Islands - a well-known offshore paradise for avoidance of taxation - the firm has an operating office in Singapore, and has thus been able to skirt massive amounts of tax (though not unlike many other, more traditional businesses do). The investigation also shouldn't come as a surprise considering how cryptocurrency - for all its technological and economic impact - is now one of the more common currencies in usage for the enablement and support of illegal activities.
According to Chainalysis.inc, a company specializing in scrutinizing the crypto market and its players, Binance was the principal crypto exchange through where funds derived from illegal activities went. According to the company, the amount of money attributed to illegal activities isn't low either; Chainalysis estimated Binance was the gateway of choice for moving upwards of $756 million dollars in illegal activities, a tidy percentage of its 2.8 billion dollar flux in that same year. No formal investigation has been announced yet, but this could be the prelude to a deeper dive onto the company's finances and possible enablement of criminal activity.
Source:
TechSpot
According to Chainalysis.inc, a company specializing in scrutinizing the crypto market and its players, Binance was the principal crypto exchange through where funds derived from illegal activities went. According to the company, the amount of money attributed to illegal activities isn't low either; Chainalysis estimated Binance was the gateway of choice for moving upwards of $756 million dollars in illegal activities, a tidy percentage of its 2.8 billion dollar flux in that same year. No formal investigation has been announced yet, but this could be the prelude to a deeper dive onto the company's finances and possible enablement of criminal activity.
66 Comments on Binance, World's Largest Crypto Exchange, Reportedly Under Investigation by DoJ, IRS
Also, I know this is friggin crazy, but complete the identity validation and things suddenly tend to work.
So no, there are far far more badly run exchanges than coinbase. Coinbase is the paypal of crypto, as they comply to KYC laws.
Don't get me wrong... it exists. But it's lessening year by year.
They're only useful for speculation and illegal activity. Neither of which has anything positive about it from the governments perspective.
I dont know how many transactions I done on coinbase, never did have an issue. But thats generally not a good thing for me. Thats just how its supposed to be, a bare minimum. Its how a company handles fudges that really show what they are. In this case, worthless.
Pay your taxes on it and you will be fine... they just don't like being out of control.
Heck, I've even tried to do a small crypto withdrawal through my relatives stateside not too long ago, and the whole process was such a clusterf#$% that I was forced to do it through Binance anyways. In EU and CIS it's essentially the only reliable way to buy/sell crypto for fiat. Last months they even added support for UAH and added fiat withdrawals for Ukraine (which is more than Paypal ever did, even after direct talks with our govt.). In the essence the only difference between Coinbase and Binance is one being public and one being private. ID validation is nothing new, and nearly all exchanges do it nowadays, and nearly everywhere there are ways around it.
Plus, exchange is just a tool. Crooks will always find a way to use new tools, so nothing new, nothing surprising, and nothing to blame Binance for (exchange manipulation is a story for another day, but CB had its dirty spots there too). I'm absolutely sure that while I'm writing this post, someone somewhere on another side of the planet in total disregard of scary IRS and photo ID validation is selling adderall and oxies for crypto, cause who the hell is going to check his tax forms anyways?:pimp:
Sad you don't have more crypto options. I'm sorry you are having issues with them. I can only say you are one of the first I've heard of outside of "typically angry" reddit. Not that that makes your issue less severe, but just saying. Coinbase actually advises you how to do this. It's not hard to do with them in USA for a wallet that's just on coinbase buying/selling/trading:
www.coinbase.com/learn/tips-and-tutorials/crypto-and-bitcoin-taxes-US
How can they be complicit in US money laundering when they won't even let a USA citizen have an account?
Short, logical answer is: unless they are doing something outside what their website is showing (like, in person), they can't.
Also, the definition of what constitutes "money laundering" very much differs in different legal zones. The US must prove that harm was done to their citizens by the exchange knowingly to their legal definition of "money laundering" in order to proceed with a case like this.
Given what I know, I doubt that will happen.
Oh my, scary.
No need we are all aware of all the things you can come up with. If there's a crime it's been committed, don't strain your imagination as it's well established without your fun elaborate and completely unnecessary details.
What the US has to demonstrate is that binance knowingly engaged with US money launderers. Since they don't even let US citizens have accounts I am curious how you will explain that one... I'm guessing it will be something along the lines of "blind eye to VPN users" or something similar. In which case, that better be a crime in the island their incorporated in. Even if it is, you now need to show how they could've made a better effort to detect VPNs, and furthermore were knowingly or negligently letting US citizens register. We'll see how the case plays out, but I see this as a scare tactic against crypto more than a serious case. This would be a real hard one to prosecute.
Just FYI, I use crypto and am not a sicko / war criminal / whatever it is you are surely typing up now. We exist.
Criminals are also innocent until proven guilty, ie binance are not criminals yet. They may never be, we'll see what happens. Actually, I may have to recant a bit.If crimes commited on US soil were directly "banked out" via known criminal wallets to binance, there could be valid charges. I swear this fairly damning detail wasn't there when I read this before...
Interesting indeed. They are in very hot water if provable. I'm keeping my old reply, before I was aware of this detail, up but striked out because I no longer support that argument given this detail, but don't want to deny I wrote it either.