Binance hides Chinese ties

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and other key officials hid Binance’s ties to China for years, according to Financial Times documents.

FT reported on March 29 that Binance has had strong contacts with China for several years, including an office that was still operating as of the end of 2019 and a Chinese bank used to pay personnel, contrary to the company’s assertions that it left the nation following a 2017 ban on cryptocurrencies.

“No longer do we publicize our office address… Individuals in China may claim plainly that our office is not in China,” Zhao allegedly said in a November 2017 workplace chat group.

In 2018, employees were advised that salaries would be paid through a Shanghai-based bank. One year later, the FT reported that Chinese payroll personnel were required to attend tax seminars in a local office.

“As a reminder, we have public offices in Malta, Singapore, and Uganda.” […]  “Do not confirm any more offices, especially those in China.”

The research supports the CFTC’s March 27 lawsuit against Binance, which alleges that the exchange hid its executive offices and the “identities and locations of the organizations controlling the trading platform.”

Zhao said in a Binance internal memo that the strategy was meant to “keep nations clean” by “not landing.com somewhere,” according to the complaint. The major reason the.com domain doesn’t land is this.”

“To be clear, the Chinese government, like any other government, does not have access to Binance data except in response to lawful and legitimate law enforcement requests,” a Binance spokesperson told the FT.

Binance officials added:

“While we did have a customer service call center based in China to service global Mandarin speakers, those employees who wished to remain with the company were offered relocation assistance starting in 2021.”

Unnamed people are distorting Binance’s actions, according to the exchange.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, claims to have 8,000 full-time employees throughout Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.