Binance's Zhao Slams SEC over Commingling Asset Claims

Binance, its US affiliates and the CEO, Changpeng Zhao have criticised a recent claim made by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that they commingled or diverted assets belonging to customers of Binance.US. The parties on Wednesday (today) filed a motion before the district court in Columbia, asking that the court order the SEC “to comply with all applicable rules of conduct concerning extrajudicial statements.”

Binance Slams SEC

On July 17, the SEC published a statement saying it had secured 'emergency relief’ to protect Binance.US customers’ assets. In the statement, the securities watchdog noted that Binance, Zhao and operators of Binance.US, BAM Management US Holdings and BAM Trading Services, have agreed to repatriate to the United States assets held for the benefit of customers of the local unit in the country.

“Given that Changpeng Zhao and Binance have control of the platforms’ customers’ assets and have been able to commingle customer assets or divert customer assets as they please, as we have alleged, these prohibitions are essential to protecting investor assets,” Gurbir S. Grewal, the Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in the statement.

However, Binance, the US affiliates and Zhao in the new motion opposed Grewal’s claim, noting that the SEC had previously admitted before the court that it “has no evidence that BAM customer assets have been dissipated, commingled, or misused in any way.” They described the SEC's press statement as ‘disappointing’, and contended that the action poses potential harm to US customers and ‘risks tainting the jury pool'.

Lmao @ Binance v. SEC #FireGenslerCourt: "I want to know, are BAM assets going offshore? Is it happening or is it not? It's stunning to me that I've now asked this question to each of the SEC attorneys 5 times."SEC: "So currently the assets are not going offshore... We're not… pic.twitter.com/QkEY5HM2ji

Restricted Access to Customers' Assets

On June 5, the SEC filed 13 charges against Binance, the affiliated entities and Zhao, alleging that they operated illegal trading platforms, offered unregistered crypto asset securities and commingled customers’ funds. Two days later, the SEC filed a motion to obtain a temporary restraining order to freeze the assets of the affiliates, Finance Magnates reported.

Later, the SEC and Binance sought to avoid a total freeze of the assets and ultimately secured the court's approval to sidestep a complete account restriction by making the funds only accessible to Binance.US employees.

Although we maintain that the SEC's request for emergency relief was entirely unwarranted, we are pleased that the disagreement over this request was resolved on mutually acceptable terms. User funds have been and always will be safe and secure on all Binance-affiliated…

The US affiliates under the agreement additionally will ensure that none of the officials from Binance Holdings, the global exchange, have access to private keys for the customers' crypto wallets. Furthermore, Binance.US was required to create and move US customers' funds to wallets only it has access to.