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Binance Faces Probe By U.S. Money-Laundering And Tax Evasion

The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance Holdings Ltd. is under investigation by the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service, for alleged money laundering and tax evasion in the United States.

US prosecutors alleged Binance is being used by criminals for transaction.

The investigation will also include inquiries from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which has been recently investigating a number of crypto trading platforms.

As part of the inquiry, officials who probe money laundering and tax offenses have sought information from individuals with insight into Binance’s business, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named because the probe is confidential. Led by Changpeng Zhao, a charismatic tech executive who relishes promoting tokens on Twitter and in media interviews, Binance has leap-frogged rivals since he co-founded it in 2017.

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The exchange is also under investigation for allowing US citizens to trade cryptocurrency on its platform despite directive that US residents cannot trade the digital assets on platforms not registered on the country’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The inquiry will be bolstered by an investigation by Chainalysis Inc.  which states that more than $700 million of illicit funds have gone through the exchange.

Chainalysis Inc. is blockchain forensics firm that works for several clients including federal agencies in the US. The firm released a report that Binance accounts for 27 percent of $2.8 billion crypto linked to criminal suspects in 2019.

The report said Binance percentage was about $756 million. Cryptocurrency has become popular in the criminal world due to its untraceable model.