In a press event this afternoon, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen called the settlement with Binance a historic action by the agency. In total, Binance is expected to pay $4.3 billion in penalties for its past actions. At the same time, Binance will cease doing business in the US.
Yellen stated:
“Over more than three years, FinCEN, OFAC, and IRS Criminal Investigation thoroughly investigated key aspects of Binance’s activities. Our work revealed that Binance claimed to have exited the U.S. market years ago, but actually did not, retaining U.S. users and other significant ties with the United States. It also had critical gaps in its anti-money laundering program and practices, from a lack of risk-based procedures for various offerings to instructing staff to withhold information from law enforcement. It deliberately undermined its own sanctions monitoring controls, and it failed to report suspicious transactions.”
Yellen criticized Binance for “allowing illicit actors to transact freely.” The penalties and punishments for Binance will put an “end to company behavior that has posed risks to the U.S. financial system, U.S. citizens, and our country’s national security for too long.”
Yellen said that if crypto exchanges want to add value to the US financial system, they must play by the rules, and if not, the government will take action.