Ex-CEO Hires Former CFTC Top Cop As Lawyer

Binance News: In midst of the ongoing investigation against the Binance exchange, Catherine Coley, the former chief executive of Binance’s U.S. subsidiary has retained the services of a former federal prosecutor and top cop at the CFTC to represent her legally. According to a Reuters report, Coley is presently being advised by James McDonald, now a partner at New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.

Ex-CEO Gets Former Top Cop As Lawyer

Catherine Coley, who launched Binance.US in 2019 and left abruptly two years later in June, has sought legal help in the recent U.S. government investigation into BinanceUS’ parent company, Binance Holdings Ltd. According to the formal demands submitted by the government agencies, Binance and Binance.US have been asked to provide the departments of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission with records of and contacts involving Coley.

Read More: U.S. SEC Charges Another Leading Crypto Exchange; Platform Forced To Shut Down

During McDonald’s tenure as director of enforcement, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) increasingly collaborated with federal prosecutors on various investigations. McDonald had previous experience working in the public corruption unit of the United States Attorney’s Office in Manhattan before joining the CFTC. In 2020, McDonald eventually resigned from his position as enforcement director of the federal agency.

Mounting Troubles For Binance

McDonald’s defense of Coley comes as pressure from US probes mounts on Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world and a dominant force in the cryptocurrency market. The CFTC filed charges against Binance and its chief executive and founder, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, on Monday, accusing them of willfully evading U.S. regulations by operating an “ongoing fraud” since 2019. In addition to this, the Justice Department has been looking into allegations of money laundering and violations of sanctions involving Binance and its related entities.

CEO Changpeng Zhao denied the charges made by the CFTC and has shown intentions to fight the lawsuit in federal court. In light of this Binance news, the price of BNB, the native cryptocurrency of the exchange, was trading at $311, which represents a decrease of 1% in the past 24 hours.

Also Read: Will This New Development Propel BNB Price To New All-Time High?

Pratik has been a crypto evangelist since 2016 & been through almost all that crypto has to offer. Be it the ICO boom, bear markets of 2018, Bitcoin halving to till now – he has seen it all.

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