Binance cryptocurrency exchange expects it will be able to finally settle the ongoing issues of regulatory investigations of the cryptocurrency industry in the U.S. by paying fines.
Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann claims that the majority of the software engineers who contributed to the growth of the exchange were not aware of the laws and regulations governing bribery, corruption, and money laundering.
According to Hillmann in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, this caused holes in Binance’s compliance efforts, which the company is now attempting to close by “engaging with authorities to find out what are the remediations we have to go through.”
He claims that although sanctions will probably arise from this, the final cost may be more.
“We just don’t know. That is for regulators to decide,” said Hillmann, adding that the exchange is still “highly confident and feeling really good about where those discussions are going.”
Binance and regulatory issues in the US
The New York Attorney General’s office initially referred the company to the New York State Department of Financial Services in 2018 for a possible violation of New York’s virtual currency legislation since the exchange has never registered itself in the nation.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) launched an investigation in March 2021 to determine if the exchange had improperly permitted U.S. citizens to utilize the service.
According to reports, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Internal Revenue Service conducted their own investigation before the CFTC opened a separate inquiry against Binance in September 2021 about allegations of insider trading.
Following the FTX crash last year, Binance came under further regulatory pressure as the DOJ was allegedly contemplating charging the exchange and several of its leaders, including CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, with crimes.
The alleged offenses are connected to a 2018 investigation into Binance’s adherence to anti-money laundering regulations and penalties.
Although it’s difficult to predict the number of penalties or when the exchange would come to a conclusion, according to Hillmann, “it will be a nice time for our firm since it enables us to put it behind us.”
The NYDFS ordered Paxos, the company that creates the Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin, to cease creating BUSD and “terminate its connection” with the cryptocurrency exchange earlier this week, which caused further problems for Binance.
