FINTRAC fines Binance for money laundering violations
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada (FINTRAC) has taken regulatory action against cryptocurrency exchange giant Binance for allegedly violating money laundering regulations.
Regulators cited two violations: failing to register with FINTRAC as a foreign currency service provider and failing to report virtual currency transactions exceeding $10,000 in a single transaction.
“Binance Holdings Limited, which also operates as Binance Holdings (IE) Ltd., Binance.com, Binance Global, and Binance, was determined to be a foreign currency servicing business. Binance Holdings Limited was assessed an administrative fine of $6,002,000 on May 7, 2024. year, committed two violations, which were discovered in the course of compliance activities in 2023.” FINTRAC wrote in a May 9 announcement: The fine amounts to approximately $4.4 million.
FINTRAC is part of Canada’s Financial Intelligence Unit. The regulator’s goal is to detect and prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and other illegal activities in the Canadian financial ecosystem.
“Using blockchain analysis, FINTRAC determined that Binance Holdings Limited received more than $10,000 in virtual currency amounts from customers in the course of a single transaction and failed to report required information in 5,902 separate instances of the transactions. from June 1, 2021 to July 19, 2023,” the regulator added.
U.S. Executive Action
The Block reported that in November 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice requested a $4 billion plea deal from Binance to close an investigation involving alleged money laundering, fraud, and sanctions violations. The deal also included then-CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao stepping down from his position and paying a $50 million fine. Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024 after pleading guilty to violating anti-money laundering sanctions regulations.
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