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Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance, waves as he arrives on stage for a panel session on the second day of the Vivatech conference in Paris, France, on Thursday, June 16, 2022. The conference, also known as VivaTech, will run until June 18. Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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PARIS – Days before the French police came to visit from Binance In the Paris office, the crypto exchange’s French chief executive dismissed concerns about US regulatory costs impacting Binance’s other operations, likening them to the flapping of a butterfly’s wings.
French prosecutors have opened an investigation into “aggravated money laundering” by the crypto exchange, Le Monde reported Friday, adding in a statement that the company was also under investigation for operating an unauthorized exchange.
Just days before the raid, CNBC asked Binance France President David Prinçay if he was concerned about allegations against the exchange by the two largest US financial regulators.
“I don’t care what happened in the US,” Prinçay replied at the Proof of Talk summit in Paris. “We are in Europe, with a French regulator, a European regulator.”
Prinçay insisted that Binance.US assets be segregated from the international exchange, a claim also made by the exchange’s legal team. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which last week charged Binance with 13 securities charges, disagrees, arguing that Binance user funds are at “significant risk” due to founder Changpeng Zhao’s alleged ownership of an interlocking Binance series related companies.
The chief of Binance France called the US allegations of a ‘car accident’ of admixture.
“The only concern I have at the moment is that we look too much at the car crash and don’t drive,” Prinçay said.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao dismissed the police statement and reporting as “FUD,” claiming it was a “surprise on-site” inspection that was “the norm.”
“We will not comment on the details of any law enforcement or regulatory investigations, except to say that information about our users is held securely and is only disclosed to government officials upon receipt of documented appropriate justification,” the exchange said in another statement.
Prinçay did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the police visit.
Binance is facing more than a dozen indictments from the SEC and a similar set of accusations from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The exchange is also under investigation by the Justice Department, according to an SEC complaint.
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