US Justice Dept Split Over Charging Binance as Crypto World Falters (reuters.com) 41
Splits between U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors are delaying the conclusion of a long-running criminal investigation into the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Reuters reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The investigation began in 2018 and is focused on Binance's compliance with U.S. anti-money laundering laws and sanctions, these people said. Some of the at least half dozen federal prosecutors involved in the case believe the evidence already gathered justifies moving aggressively against the exchange and filing criminal charges against individual executives including founder Changpeng Zhao, said two of the sources. Others have argued taking time to review more evidence, the sources said.
The inquiry involves prosecutors at three Justice Department offices: the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, known as MLARS, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington in Seattle and the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team. Justice Department regulations say that money laundering charges against a financial institution must be approved by the MLARS chief. Leaders from the other two offices, along with higher-level DOJ officials, would likely also have to sign off on any action against Binance, three of the sources said.
The inquiry involves prosecutors at three Justice Department offices: the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, known as MLARS, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington in Seattle and the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team. Justice Department regulations say that money laundering charges against a financial institution must be approved by the MLARS chief. Leaders from the other two offices, along with higher-level DOJ officials, would likely also have to sign off on any action against Binance, three of the sources said.
Question is, who in the DOJ is invested in crypto? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's even stupider than that (Score:5, Insightful)
But a lot of people in the gov't are genuinely letting crypto roam free because they don't want to destroy a nascent "industry".
It's a kind of blind devotion to the tenets of capitalism where economically and socially destructive industry cannot be shut down so long as they're profitable. The "market" decides everything, and if it makes money you don't consider the harm caused unless the harm falls under the category of something traditionally thought of as illegal. i.e. murder, theft or something that facilitates murder & theft.
This is why the SEC let crypto scams fester for so long. It's what happens when you take laissez faire too far. You get crooks and scammers allowed to do as they please so long as the amount of victims doesn't get too high.
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One might say that most regulations are the result of taking laissez faire too far.
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Since Ronald Reagan I've watched regulation after regulation dismantled under the guise of no longer being necessary because the probl
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Political donations? (Score:3, Insightful)
Justice Department regulations say that money laundering charges against a financial institution must be approved by the MLARS chief. Leaders from the other two offices, along with higher-level DOJ officials, would likely also have to sign off on any action against Binance, three of the sources said.
FTX executives "donated" tens of millions of dollars to various politicians. Did Binance do the same? That would explain inaction.
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That would explain inaction
Or the fact that they are in fact seeking criminal conviction. You only get one chance to do it correctly and criminal cases are ones that the penalty is your fundamental rights being taken away for long periods of time. So yeah, this kind of large case that has a ton at stake, with plenty of opportunities for plaintiff to just go "I was not aware that . . . was going on", you don't just rush in there. The DoJ has all kinds within it, from cynically cautious to hotshots with everything to prove.
They are
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Justice Department regulations say that money laundering charges against a financial institution must be approved by the MLARS chief. Leaders from the other two offices, along with higher-level DOJ officials, would likely also have to sign off on any action against Binance, three of the sources said.
FTX executives "donated" tens of millions of dollars to various politicians. Did Binance do the same? That would explain inaction.
Well here's the important bit from the summary (emphasis added):
The investigation began in 2018 and is focused on Binance's compliance with U.S. anti-money laundering laws and sanctions, these people said.
FTX didn't even exist in 2018. I'm sure there's people looking into FTX now but absent incontrovertible evidence of guilt they're going to need time to investigate and gather evidence before laying charges.
This Binance probe sounds more like an attempt to go after the industry as a whole, ie, is someone
DOJ is pretty autonomous (Score:2)
This is probably DOJ wondering if they can get a conviction or not combined with the general Laissez-faire approach to business we take in America. DOJ waits until after the damage is done to do anything in most cases.
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Bankman-Freid was the #2 individual contributor to Democratic candidates and causes, behind George Soros. We'll find out how far that "moved the needle" when he testifies before Congress.
Of course (Score:2)
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These are criminal charges. The little guys need to file for civil. Prosecutors are focusing on the merits related to stripping people's inalienable rights away for long stretches of time. So yeah, they aren't focusing on people losing money because that's not what this case is about. Civil restitution is a lot easier if the defendant is already convicted of criminal charges, so in a way prosecutors are indeed helping "the little guy" here, but that's not their focus.
Re:Of course (Score:5, Insightful)
The charges are all varieties of bogus money laundering and licensing charges NOT failure to hold proper reserves or going belly up. Prosecutors don't care about the little guys, just that government power got snubbed.
You do realize that crypto is a (mostly) unregulated "investment" FTX was not treated as a bank by the FDIC, nor had their holdings inspected, blah blah blah.
I remember all the CryptoBros yelling about "fake fiat currency" harping on how useless the Fed and FDIC were and so on while touting various coins.
I mean, a real "Sorry, but not sorry." moment here but... what did you expect? The whole point of crypto was that it was separate from the evil Fed / FDIC / other fiat nation banking controls.
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Perhaps now would also be a great time to point out that Binance (not Binance.us) is a Taiwanese company that kicked Americans off its platform in 2018/2019.
Re:Curious target (Score:4)
Gangster on gangster violence. Shocker....I know...that an industry which has been used almost exclusively for ponzi schemes and facilitating money laundering and payments for criminal activity would turn out to be mostly rotten.
It was only a matter of time before things started to implode.
Re: Curious target (Score:2)
You are obviously speaking of all the money SBF gave to the GOP.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/a... [google.com]
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No. Try again.
Re: Curious target (Score:2)
Sorry, reality says you're full of shit. Have another go.
Re: Curious target (Score:5, Insightful)
Reality says that SBF gave ~20x more cash to the Dems than to the Republicans:
https://www.marketwatch.com/st... [marketwatch.com]
Democrats have also been donating to Republican primary efforts to try and harm their prospects in general elections:
https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
If you have to ask why SBF would donate to Republicans, then you haven't been paying attention to what all the other Democrat donors have been up to over the past year or so.
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You know, the answer in this case of political spending is not 'follow the money', the answer in this case of political spending is 'limits'. Imagine if every candidate had exactly the same amount of money to campaign with, no more, no less. The answer is to scrap PACs and all other funny money and put a reasonable cap on spending.
To give you some perspective, on average in 2019 the US spent under $16,000 per child on education [0], while on average in the 2022 mid-term election the US spent over $20,000,0
He gave 30 million to the dems (Score:2)
Freid also personally claims to have given just as much or more to the Republicans through dark money channels. Take that what you will since the man lies a lot. But regardless the money was coming from FTX and for all practical purposes FTX through the vehicle of the President and vice President bribed both parties. Giving a slight advantage to the Republicans.
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Oh dear, look at all the nasty downmods. Someone doesn't like informed inquiry.
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Binance just exposed SBF's misdeeds by nuking FTX. Now they want to push for money laundering charges? What a coincidence. Meanwhile numerous banks have been implicated in facilitating international money laundering but not much has been done to them.
That's an easy one take the 2008 meltdown: The banks made sure they were too big to fail. Using the US as an example investment houses and banks made sure they would too damaging if they imploded by eliminating Glass-Steagal. This let them merge banks with their investment arms, putting deposits at risk. Why did they do this? Sure, if the *financially separated* investment arm of bank implodes it's bad, like Bear-Stearns... but it's not federally insured.
However after Glass-Steagal was eliminated the in
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Too big to fail, indeed.
Once the money stops, looking the other way stops (Score:1)
This seems typical of government. A year ago, Ted Cruz hallmarked a major BTC/cryptocurrency conference in Austin that was $450+ to go to, perhaps more if you wanted to hear some bigwigs bloviate. Nobody cared that FTX or whatnot could implode, and we always got people either talking chatter about death crosses, and other investobabble, as well as always asserting that BTC is a real currency due to it having energy put into it, is 100% secure, immune to this... all that shit. Oh, and guys who drive expen
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I would absolutely vote Trump, because anyone willing to associate with the modern Democrat party has in my opinion displayed a great moral failing.
That said Trump is NOT getting re-elected. Through a highly coordinated effort of deep state actors cooperating with the national Democratic party undermining his entire presidency, and the election interference of big tech, the deliberate introduction of COVID into nursing care facilities to raise the death toll and fear so as cover for violating state election
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Through a highly coordinated effort of deep state actors cooperating with the national Democratic party undermining his entire presidency, and the election interference of big tech, the deliberate introduction of COVID into nursing care facilities to raise the death toll and fear so as cover for violating state elections was enough 'fix' the election
You forgot to take your pills again
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I would absolutely vote Trump, because anyone willing to associate with the modern Democrat party has in my opinion displayed a great moral failing.
I can't believe this gets glossed over by the MAGA crowd. https://thehill.com/homenews/a... [thehill.com]
I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida to go to court would have taken a long time,” Trump said at a meeting with lawmakers on school safety and gun violence.
“Take the guns first, go through due process second,” Trump said.
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+2, Hilarious parody of deranged Trumpist!
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Paying the price for taking down FTX (Score:2)
You would think that CZ, being from the PRC IIRC, would understand that if you go after a big time bag man of the ruling class you're going to pay dearly for it.
For those who don't get the reference, CZ is the one who started the run on FTT (FTX's token) that caused FTX to be revealed to be sitting on worthless reserves with massive losses.
Re: Paying the price for taking down FTX (Score:2)
This feels more like retaliation. I'm not even sure the American courts can establish jurisdiction over Binance. They intentionally ban Americans from their platform specifically so they don't have to follow American finance law.
As far as I know, no one has claimed Binance has done anything illegal. Just that their foreign operation is being used illegally by some Americans.
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Was thinking the same thing. He might believe himself beyond Washington's reach.
Ah Yes, The Fake Charge of Money Laundering (Score:1)
And the bad bad companies that dare not to fight it.
If you sped on your way to work this morning, a nexus exists between your paycheck and a crime.
Do not deposit that paycheck, Mr. or Mrs. Money Launderer, for all your funds are belong to us.
Money laundering: providing a means for selective enforcement since 1970.