According to Reuters, US prosecutors may charge Binance and CZ with money laundering

According to sources cited by Reuters, US prosecutors are considering charging cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its executives with possible money laundering and sanctions violations.

According to the report, the Department of Justice and Binance's attorneys have also discussed potential plea agreements. Following a string of incidents in which criminals used Binance to transfer illegal funds, prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle started looking into Binance in 2018, according to the report.

There is a division within the Department of Justice over whether more evidence should be gathered before a criminal case is filed. Tigran Gambaryan, the exchange's global head of intelligence and investigations, disputed the Reuters report in a statement, claiming that Binance has

“responded to over 47,000 law enforcement requests” since November 2021.

“As has been reported widely, regulators are doing a sweeping review of every crypto company against many of the same issues. This nascent industry has grown quickly and Binance has shown its commitment to security and compliance through large investments in our team as well as the tools and technology we use to detect and deter illicit activity,” a representative for Binance said.

Gambaryan continued, saying that Binance's team is “possibly even the strongest in the entire financial sector” and that the company has increased the headcount for security and compliance by more than 500%.