The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has received the go-ahead from the US District Court of Columbia to proceed with the majority of its charges against Binance and its co-founder Changpeng Zhao.
SEC Gets Green Light To Proceed With Majority Of Its Binance Charges
Media reports indicated that the SEC charged Binance and Zhao, better known as ‘CZ’, for mismanaging customer funds, deceiving investors and regulators, and transgressing security regulations. The company, a leading crypto exchange, and its former CEO challenged the charges, asking for the case to be dismissed.
The SEC initially filed 13 charges. Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed one of these, but gave the green light for 10 to proceed. The outstanding two received partial approval. The dismissed count dealt with the sale of BUSD, a cryptocurrency, which has since become obsolete due to the SEC clampdown.
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According to Bloomberg, the part in a charge dealing with the sale of BNB, a Binance token, was also dismissed. This portion dealt with the secondary sale of BNB, which has an approximate market value of $87bn. Allegations questioning the legality of Simple Earn were also excluded.
At the end of last year, Binance received a record-high plea-deal penalty of $4.3bn for the violation of US anti-money laundering and sanctions rules. As a result, Zhao was sentenced to a four-month jail term. Based on Bloomberg data, the SEC was not part of these negotiations.
According to the financial watchdog, most virtual assets are not registered securities and should therefore be regulated by the SEC. The authority’s chairperson, Gary Gensler, is widely known for his objection to crypto
