Tag: sanctions:
G7 leaders to up economic pressure on Russia with new rounds of sanctions
Binance under investigation for possibly skirting sanctions against Russia
Binance has a fresh pair of eyes on its business dealings, this time belonging to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Bloomberg reported that the crypto exchange (currently the world’s largest) is facing a DOJ probe over possibly allowing Russians to move money in a way that would violate U.S. sanctions. Per Bloomberg’s report, Binance has also talked to the DOJ about older, similar complaints related to sanctions against Iran.
Binance, of course, denied any wrongdoing in a statement. The company emphasized that it “launched an initiative to completely overhaul its corporate governance structure” in 2021, becoming compliant with international sanctions.
It’s worth noting that no formal accusation has been made against Binance, as this is just a probe. It may be some time before accusations manifest—if they manifest at all. In 2021, Binance was under a similar investigation related to possible money laundering.
Binance became the world’s biggest crypto exchange late last year, as FTX infamously collapsed. At one point, Binance planned to bail out FTX financially, but that eventually fell through.
At least the crypto world is never boring.
Crypto giant Binance is reportedly facing US probe for violating Russian sanctions
Binance is reportedly facing yet another investigation by the US Justice Department, and this time, it’s over possible violations against sanctions imposed against Russia. According to Bloomberg, the agency is looking into whether the cryptocurrency exchange allowed Russian customers to move money as a way to go around US sanctions on the country’s financial institutions. The news organizations’ sources also said that Binance is discussing the possibility of settling with the DOJ regarding previous allegations that the exchange was also used to move money to circumvent US sanctions against Iran.
If you’ll recall, United States and the European Union imposed sanctions against Russian financial institutions following the invasion of Ukraine. Mykhailo Federov, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister, asked major crypto exchanges to freeze all Russian and Belarusian accounts at the same time, but Binance was one of the companies that refused to do so. Back then, a spokesperson said that unilaterally banning people’s access to cryptocurrency “would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists,” because it would affect ordinary users and not just Russian oligarchs.
If the DOJ truly is looking into Binance’s activities related to Russian sanctions, then it’s merely one of the investigations the exchange is grappling with. The DOJ and the Internal Revenue Service started looking into reports that Binance is being used for money laundering schemes in 2021. And just earlier this year, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao (pictured above) for not asking users to verify their identities, offering unregistered crypto derivatives and for implementing measures to avoid US regulation. Binance told us at the time that it found the charges “unexpected and disappointing.”
This time, it told Bloomberg in a statement: “In 2021, Binance launched an initiative to completely overhaul its corporate governance structure, including bringing in a world-class bench of seasoned executives to fundamentally change how Binance operates globally.” The spokesperson continued that the company now observes strict know-your-customer protocols similar to the ones employed by traditional banks. “Our policy,” they said, “imposes a zero-tolerance approach to double registrations, anonymous identities, and obscure sources of money,” While they didn’t specifically address the allegations, the statement sounds like a denial that the company’s service allowed Russian users to flout US sanctions.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/crypto-giant-binance-is-reportedly-facing-us-probe-for-violating-russian-sanctions-094505840.html?src=rss
China’s Chip Industry Will Be ‘Reborn’ Under US Sanctions, Says Huawei
The U.S. is concerned that China could use advanced semiconductors for military purposes. Huawei’s Xu said these developments could boost, rather than hamper China’s domestic semiconductor industry. “I believe China’s semiconductor industry will get reborn under such sanctions and realize a very strong and self-reliant industry,” Xu said. Last week, Huawei claimed to have completed work on electronic design automation tools for laying out and making chips down to 14nm process nodes.
“But Huawei ideally needs chips of a much smaller nanometer size for more advanced applications, which they are currently finding it difficult to obtain,” adds Reuters. “The company is still reeling from the effects of U.S. sanctions — on Friday, it said net profit dropped 69% year-on-year in 2022, marking the biggest decline on record.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
US Court Sanctions Google For Deleting Evidence In Antitrust Cases
The judge asked the plaintiffs’ lawyers by April 21 to provide an amount in legal fees they are seeking as a sanction. Separately, the plaintiffs will have a chance to urge Donato to tell jurors that Google destroyed information that was unfavorable to it. He said he wants to see “the state of play” at a later stage in the case. “Google has tried to downplay the problem and displayed a dismissive attitude ill tuned to the gravity of its conduct,” the judge said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.