A recent report from the Wall Street Journal has revealed insider communications between Binance and Binance US, discussing how best to deal with regulatory oversight. The report suggests that the two companies have not been as compartmentalized as previously believed. For instance, Binance.US’s software was maintained by Binance’s team and certain areas of process management were overseen by Binance. Additionally, the two companies’ staff also mingled during team-building events.
The report also revealed that current SEC chairman Gary Gensler was approached with a tentative advisory position in 2018. However, Gensler declined the offer and instead offered some cordial advice on how to comply with US authorities.
In response to the allegations, a spokesperson for Binance acknowledged that compliance procedures were not as rigid in the platforms’ early days due to inexperience. However, the spokesperson also stressed that this issue has been fixed long ago and that Binance.US was founded specifically to serve US customers with products and services that adhere to US rules and regulations. Furthermore, the spokesperson noted that neither Binance nor Binance.US ever co-mingled user funds with funds necessary for day-to-day operations.
