Binance launches program with law enforcement
Binance on Sept. 27 unveiled its new Global Law Enforcement Training Program, which will help law enforcement detect cyber financial crime and assist in prosecuting malicious actors. This program is the industry’s first global coordinated effort. According to the announcement, the Binance investigations team has grown exponentially over the year and is ready to share its expertise. Individuals from the Binance investigations team with global hands-on practice in the topic will lead the program. These individuals include security experts, former law enforcement agents, analysts, and operatives who helped take down global cyber-criminal organizations such as Hydra. The announcement also mentioned a standard one-day training program that includes in-person workshops explaining the fundamentals of crypto and blockchain with particular emphasis on the regulatory environment they operate in.
The announcement states that Binance’s investigations team has hosted and participated in over 30 workshops on fighting cyber and financial crime over the past year. The team also contacted law enforcement officials from numerous countries, including the U.K., France, Germany, Canada, South Korea, and the Philippines. Binance’s Global Head of Intelligence and Investigations, Tigran Gambaryan, said: “As more regulators, public law enforcement agencies, and private sector stakeholders look closely at crypto, we are seeing an increased demand for training to help educate on and combat crypto crimes. To meet that demand, we have bolstered our team to conduct more training and work hand-in-hand with regulators across the globe.” The team previously aided Uniswap and Curve DNS when they were exploited by cybercriminals in July and August, respectively.
The exchange giant has been taking steps to dive deeper into the regulatory side of the crypto sphere. To promote responsible regulation of the crypto industry, Binance launched a Global Advisory Board (GAB) on Sept. 22. The GAB included various experts in the field, including a former U.S. senator and global business leaders. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao described GAB’s mission by saying: “With the [board], we’re supercharging our ability to manage regulatory complexity by tapping into the highest level of expertise available in the world.” One day later, the exchange announced that it hired its rival exchange Kraken‘s compliance chief. Steven Christie left his position at Kraken to serve Binance as senior vice president of compliance. In addition to sharing the news, Zhao added that the exchange was looking to hire more people to work on its compliance team.
India’s law enforcement agency Directorate of Enforcement (ED) froze over $1,5 million deposited in crypto exchange Binance. The funds were deposited in Bitcoin via a transaction tie to crypto exchange WazirX and the Mobile Gaming App called E-Nuggets. According to a press release from the Directorate of Enforcement, the Mobile app has been linked to Aamir Khan, and a Money Launder investigation was launched in July. This individual and others were accused of allegedly violating the Money Laundering Act by a complaint filed by the Federal Bank authorities. The related entities with these alleged illegal activities are the mobile gaming app E-Nuggets, crypto exchange WazirX, its parent company Zanmai Labs, and crypto exchange Binance. As Bitcoinist reported, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance, has denied the allegations.
Two months ago, when the initial investigation was launched, CZ took to Twitter to clarify its involvement with WazirX, and state that there are no financial ties between the exchange platforms. At that time, the ED accused these entities of operating with “loose” regulatory control and no Know Your Customer (KYC) policy. The law enforcement agency stated: By encouraging obscurity and having lax AML norms, it has actively assisted around 16 accused fintech companies in laundering the proceeds of crime using the crypto route. Now, the ED claims that the individual behind E-Nuggets, Aamir Khan, created the app with the “purpose of defrauding the public”. Once a “sizeable amount of money” was collected from E-Nuggets, the suspect proceeded to halt transactions and withdrew the funds. Later, the bad actor “wiped off” the users’ data from the app servers. The ED claims the stolen funds were transferred using crypto exchanges. The bad actors were able to open “dummy accounts” in the crypto exchange WazirX, deposit the funds, and then proceeded to transfer the funds to Binance. The release claims: The balance of said transferred cryptocurrencies i.e., 77.62710139 Bitcoins equivalent to USD 1573466 (Rs 12.83 Crore approximately) at Binance crypto exchange has been frozen.
The continued cooperation with authorities will propel Binance forward when regulations and guidelines are put into place. Already creating connections and open dialogue with the people in the country’s financial sectors throughout the world. The competition continues to grow between FTX, Binance, and Coinbase who have all taken very different approaches to the situation.
