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SEC Sues Binance and CEO Zhao for Breaking US Securities Rules

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Re: SEC Sues Binance and CEO Zhao for Breaking US Securities Rules

#371

Read the court filing. There's a lot of inside information from "BAM CEO A" and "BAM CEO B". These were the first two CEOs of Binance.us. They came on board thinking they had a real job. Then they discovered they were just figureheads. "BAM CEO A" was fired. "BAM CEO B" quit after three months and started cooperating with US regulators. "Upon assuming his CEO duties, however, BAM CEO B quickly learned that Binance, i…

Former Comptroller of the Currency (and former Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase) Brian Brooks served as CEO of Binance.US for only 3 months in 2021. He makes a very credible witness!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_P._Brooks#Binance.US

Re: SEC Sues Binance and CEO Zhao for Breaking US Securities Rules

#372
post #330
post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect Binance is prepared and they will simply not comply. Nothing is physically in the US to be seized (except maybe the binance.us domain).

[flagged]

I am not sure I understand. Do you think this suit is baseless?

Re: SEC Sues Binance and CEO Zhao for Breaking US Securities Rules

#373
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you make the same argument without invoking international bogeymen? This is basically one of the aforementioned Patriot Act talking points.

I already did. DPRK and Russia aren't imaginary. https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2022-crypto-crime-repor... https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/business/north-korea-cryp...

Almost all international bogeymen are real in some capacity. The point is that they're used to invoke fear towards concession of one's right to do what they wish with their acquired capital. The US justice system is designed to protect the innocent minority, not hunt the guilty majority.

Re: SEC Sues Binance and CEO Zhao for Breaking US Securities Rules

#375

Is there any indication that eventually Bitcoin and Ethereum don't eventually get pulled into the "unlicensed security" category?

Gensler is a Bitcoin maxi. He tried to walk back the previous head’s statements on ethereum but unfortunately for him it cannot be done easily. However he will do his best to ban all other crypto.

Re: SEC Sues Binance and CEO Zhao for Breaking US Securities Rules

#376

The same thing will happen to Coinbase. Just look at the backgrounds of their CXOs. None are qualified to be leading such a large company IMO. I bet my life the same shit is going on over there.

Coinbase is a public company and has genuine audits - I'd be surprised if they failed for any reason other than Crypto being outlawed.

Re: SEC Sues Binance and CEO Zhao for Breaking US Securities Rules

#377
post #40

> In one instance, the Binance chief compliance officer messaged a colleague that, “[w]e are operating as a fking unlicensed securities exchange in the USA bro.” Source: https://twitter.com/JohnReedStark/status/1665748594421297152 This is a legendary quote from the filing.

My theory is that Binance execs were having these chats in an encrypted medium (e.g. WA or Signal) but didn't secure themselves against a defector. I think someone on the inside took screenshots and went to the feds (or started cooperating under legal pressure). There's even a leading candidate [0]. What's funny about this is it's a fine metaphor for what ails crypto as a whole. The technology is cryptographically se…

A lot of this stuff was also in the CFTC complaint.

I wonder if they snagged a backup of an insider's phone.

Re: SEC Sues Binance and CEO Zhao for Breaking US Securities Rules

#378
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a hitman should be illegal. Selling a slave should be illegal. Accepting a bribery should be illegal. Chop the trunk, not the branches.

> Being a hitman should be illegal You don't see any reason why hiring a hitman should also be illegal?

No, I don't. Hitmen being unavailable would make it a non-issue, and conspiracy to commit murder is already a crime. As I mentioned in another comment in this thread, the US justice system (and French, giving credit where it is due) is designed to protect the innocent minority, not pursue the guilty majority. Patchwork legislation and wasting resources pursuing consumers instead of providers results in an eroding of basic civil liberties that may not be immediately apparent when one is focused solely on the issues used to provoke such concessions.

Re: SEC Sues Binance and CEO Zhao for Breaking US Securities Rules

#379
post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these were amateurs who didnt know that in Anglosaxon common law, you have to avoid being honest about anything and even deny any wrongdoing even if you get caught the act of murdering someone Ignoring the "Anglosaxon" buzzword here, none of this is unique conceptually to US law, or foreign conceptually to anyone who's told a lie when younger. It's instinctual for many when they know they've done something wrong. T…

> Ignoring the "Anglosaxon" buzzword The 'Anglosaxon' term is a long-standing political science, history and diplomacy term. Its not something that can be ignored, especially because... > none of this is unique conceptually to US law ... it is. The common law derives from the medieval !Anglosaxon! feudal law, which is based on contracts, agreements, negotiations and precedents. It can be 'interpreted' by the judge, w…

>It can be 'interpreted' by the judge, who takes on the role of the feudal lord of the earlier times

The judge is separate from the prosecution (who are referred to in court as "the state" or "the government"). This is called "judicial independence".

>The persecution or the defendant can negotiate any outcome...

...provided that outcome is preferable to having the jury decide.

>Which obligates the need for lying

No, that's perjury if done under oath. Or, in the case of prosecutorial misconduct, grounds for a mistrial.

>The ENTIRE rest of the world uses the civil law system

No, it does not.

>which descended in turn from the French Revolutionary principles.

No, it's even older than that.

>It cannot be 'interpreted'

You have never been sued in France, and you have never seen the inside of a US courtroom except on TV.

>Which is also the reason why the lawyers get upper middle class salaries and income in entire rest of the world but make obscene, irrational income in the US

The average US lawyer makes less money than the average web developer in the Bay Area.

>In Europe, judges and lawyers and prosecutors function more like clerks - the law is clear and solid.

Europe, equipped with legal technology far in advance of what the Anglophone world must deal with, has eliminated ambiguity in language to such an extent that the legal profession there is now a form of bookkeeping. Soon, the Sorbonne law faculty will be replaced by Droite-GPT (which will still take the month of August off, because reasons...)

>In the rest of the world that does not happen - there is no way to negotiate down any sentence that may befall on your corporation, but most importantly, you, the perpetrator...

The Code Napoleon has eliminated corporate malfeasance in the non-english-speaking world. Quite remarkable.

Re: SEC Sues Binance and CEO Zhao for Breaking US Securities Rules

#380

Not a Binance fan but in this context, and considering the SECs unwillingness of declaring when cryptocurrencies are securities or not, it's pretty clear that they go after Binance for strategic reasons. Not sure but I assume this is controlled by the Biden admin.

They have been very clear. Everything except bitcoin. Crypto people just don't like the response.

I'm not aware of that. I've seen the video of the chairman of the SEC recently, and for five minutes he refused to tell whether Ether is a security or commodity.
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