The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has appointed the London-based Forensic Risk Alliance, which specialises in forensic accounting and data analytics, to monitor Binance, the world’s leading crypto currency exchange.
DOJ Appoints Specialist Company To Monitor Binance
This appointment comes after Binance’s founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, admitted to violating US money laundering and trade sanctions in November 2023. Zhao also stepped down as Binance CEO during this time and was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024.
Sources said that Forensic Risk Alliance was selected over other companies, including Sullivan & Cromwell, a Wall Street outfit. Forensic Risk Alliance is an expert in fraud and corruption investigations and previously collaborated with the DOJ, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), among others. To date, neither the DOJ nor Forensic Risk Alliance have volunteered public comments.
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According to CryptoNews, this appointment forms part of the plea agreement reached in November 2023. The crypto exchange also had to pay a $4.3bn penalty.
Forensic Risk Alliance will access Binance’s internal records and physical premises and interact with employees to ensure that its operations remain aligned with the plea agreement. It will also report to the DOJ.
CryptoNews reported that at this stage, Sullivan & Cromwell was pegged as the favourite to monitor Binance, but its work with FTX, the once popular centralised crypto exchange, polluted its selection. Critics allege that the company failed to pinpoint FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud.
