As reported by Reuters, Binance secretly accessed a bank account of its U.S.-based partner and moved more than $400 million from that account to a trading business owned by CEO Changpeng Zhao.
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During the first three months of 2021, funds were transferred from the Binance.US account at Silvergate Bank to the trading business Merit Peak Ltd., as shown by the citing banking records and corporate messages. The transfer began in late 2020, according to Reuters.
Reuters stated that it could not identify whether the transferred funds belonged to U.S. clients or why the funds were moved. Executives at the U.S. company were concerned about the actions since they were unaware they were taking place.
Kimberly Soward, a representative for Binance.US, stated to Reuters that the outlet was publishing “outdated information,” but she did not answer queries regarding the transactions.
Parent company Binance did not respond to Reuters, nor did Zhao or Prime Trust, which was also mentioned as storing customer assets for the U.S. exchange. Silvergate informed Reuters that it does not comment on specific clients.