US SEC sues Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao

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Securities and Exchange CommissionUSA (SEC) accused the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange and its founder of creating a “web of deception,” inflating trading volume, diverting customer assets and trading in unregistered securities.

SEC appealed to the District of Columbia court, publiclystating on Monday, June 5, that the administration of Binance and personally its CEO Changpeng Zhao failed to restrict access to their trading platform for US clients, and also “distorted critical information, thereby misleading investors regarding their means of market control."

“Based on thirteen counts of charges, we"We allege that Changpeng Zhao and Binance engaged in a vast network of defrauding investors, conflicts of interest, failure to disclose information, and intentionally evaded the law," said SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.

The SEC, in a 136-page lawsuit, accuses Binance of numerous violations of federal securities laws and trading in unregistered securities. 

To unregistered securities SECincludes tokens of the Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), Coti (COTI) and Algorand (ALGO) blockchains, Filecoin (FIL), Cosmos hub (ATOM) networks, Sandbox (AXS), Axie infinity and Decentraland platforms (MANA).

The Commission insists on identifying the facts of the actual management of the operational activities of the American platform Binance.US, despite the assurances
Changpeng Zhao about the site’s complete independence fromparent crypto exchange. The authors of the lawsuit are asking the district court to order to freeze Binance’s assets, as well as seize all possible documents and accounting papers to prevent the destruction of evidence.

Previously addressed to Binance and its CEOCEO Changpeng Zhao has been charged by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) with allegedly evading federal laws and operating an unregistered digital asset derivatives exchange.