Exclusive-Crypto giant Binance controlled 'independent' U.S. affiliate's bank accounts

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Binance executive was the main operator for five bank accounts belonging to the giant cryptocurrency exchange's purportedly independent U.S. affiliate, including an account that held American customers' funds, bank records show. U.S. lender Silvergate Bank authorized the executive, Guangying Chen, a close associate of Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, to operate the accounts in 2019 and 2020, according to records from those years. This allowed Chen and her deputies to move funds held in the bank accounts. Employees at the affiliate, Binance.US, had to ask Chen's team to process payments, even to cover the firm's payroll, company messages show. The new findings offer further detail into how Binance exercised tight control over Binance.US, despite both firms maintaining that they have always operated independently. The previously unreported bank records and messages show that Binance's management over the U.S. business's finances extended across its bank accounts at Silvergate and detail how this secret access was granted. Binance.US has denied that Binance ever operated its bank accounts. Its head of legal, Krishna Juvvadi, told in April that employees of Binance.US's operator, BAM Trading, had «exclusive control» since its founding in 2019.

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In response to questions for this article, however, a Binance.US spokesperson, Christian Hertenstein, said that since the company's current chief executive, Brian