Binance Under France Investigation
Binance faced legal battles with the French government over tax fraud and money laundering. The world’s largest crypto exchange was also suspected of failing to control its customers’ funds.
The Paris public prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, said in a press release that “the National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime (Junalco) opened (Tuesday) a judicial investigation” into this case, which has been the subject of a preliminary investigation since February 2022.
The investigations will now proceed with the specific goal of elucidating the scope of the facts under the supervision of an investigating magistrate, the Binance managers’ role, and the level of involvement of the different companies on the platform, the magistrate stated.
The investigation focuses on “the offenses of aggravated money laundering, tax fraud money laundering, drug trafficking money laundering, and illegal practice of the profession of digital asset service provider (PSAN) that may be attributed to the crypto-asset exchange platform Binance,” she said.
“This process is a common approach by financial authorities and is implemented in various countries to strengthen the fight against money laundering by crypto-assets,” Ms. Beccuau explained.
“For acts committed in France and the European Union, the period of the facts concerned extends from 2019 to 2024, depending on the offenses,” the magistrate stated.
Ms. Beccuau adds that the investigation was launched in 2022 “after users complained that they had lost money after investing on this platform because of information that they said was inaccurate and that had been communicated to them.”.
“At this point, the investigation shows that the digital exchange failed in its vigilance obligations during the relevant period of events in the context of the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism,” the prosecutor says.
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