The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s former head of internet enforcement has warned that the newly unsealed Department of Justice (DOJ) filing should “signal the end of Binance.” Additionally, he noted that the SEC has heightened its legal action against the crypto exchange. “To me, it’s only a matter of time before the entire Binance plea deal collapses, resulting in additional charges for Binance, additional charges for CZ, and new charges against anyone else,” he stressed.
‘It’s Only a Matter of Time Before the Entire Binance Plea Deal Collapses’
Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official John Reed Stark shared his predictions regarding crypto exchange Binance in a lengthy post on social media platform X Saturday. Stark is currently president of cybersecurity firm John Reed Stark Consulting. He founded and served as chief of the SEC Office of Internet Enforcement for 11 years. He was also an SEC enforcement attorney for 15 years.
The ex-SEC official outlined two key developments in the Binance settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Firstly, he explained that there has been “a flurry of newly released Binance-related filings” made by DOJ, which “have shined glaring sunlight upon the extensive, robust and vigorous oversight that DOJ now enjoys over Binance.” Asserting that the “newly unsealed U.S. DOJ filings could signal the end of Binance,” Stark opined:
The exhaustive list of Binance’s new compliance commitments reads like a consulting firm’s wish list – and will cost tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars to implement and execute.
“The monitorships and oversight installed going forward at Binance would be like installing bodycams on every member of a global criminal drug cartel, and making the cartel bear the cost for a large, experienced and well-credentialed team of former and current government agents to monitor the footage 24-7,” the former SEC official detailed.
“My take is that, just like a drug cartel, a secretive and opaque financial firm like Binance cannot suddenly transform itself into a traditional, law-abiding, open, transparent, obedient, submissive and government-friendly financial firm. Surviving an SEC audit would be tough enough for the beleaguered Binance infrastructure but facing a DOJ/FinCEN audit — well, that seems all but impossible,” Stark continued, elaborating:
To me, it’s only a matter of time before the entire Binance plea deal collapses, resulting in additional charges for Binance, additional charges for CZ and new charges against anyone else (partner, customer, joint-venturer, collaborator etc.) nefariously intertwined with the Binance criminal enterprise.
“The stark reality is that neither Binance nor any other mega-crypto firm (or any financial firm in the world for that matter) has ever been party to a DOJ/FinCEN plea agreement commanding governmental oversight as vigorous, forceful and all-inclusive as the one Binance has agreed to undertake (and pay for),” he stressed.
The second development Stark outlined is that the SEC has filed a “supplemental pleading against Binance,” which he believes strengthened the regulator’s lawsuit against the crypto firm “exponentially.”
The former SEC internet enforcement chief described: “In their pending Binance-related enforcement action, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun to incorporate facts from the DOJ plea agreement into the SEC’s pending enforcement action against Binance and Changpeng Zhao (CZ).” He emphasized:
These settlements all exponentially strengthen the pending SECs case against Binance and CZ.
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