The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued another major crypto exchange and its billionaire founder Monday.
The SEC filed 13 charges against Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao. The company is accused of engaging “in an extensive web of deception…and calculated evasion of the law.”
Specifically, the SEC alleges the company enticed U.S. customers into the unregulated international exchange. A U.S. company acts as a legal shield but is still unofficially under the CEO’s control.
According to the complaint, Zhao sent billions of comingled funds to another European company that he also controls.
Binance has expressed disappointment over the lawsuit, which it says was filed despite “extensive good-faith discussions.”
The company also alleges that the suit is an example of the SEC targeting crypto-companies, a notion SEC Chair Gary Gensler rejects.