{"id":9740,"date":"2025-02-06T17:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T17:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=9740"},"modified":"2025-02-06T17:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T17:22:10","slug":"france-deepens-probe-into-binance-over-alleged-money-laundering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=9740","title":{"rendered":"France deepens probe into Binance over alleged money laundering"},"content":{"rendered":"
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French authorities have deepened their investigation into Binance on suspicion the world\u2019s largest cryptocurrency exchange broke European money laundering and terrorist financing laws.<\/p>\n

The public prosecutor said on Tuesday it had opened a judicial investigation into Binance as it was \u201clikely to have assisted in habitual money laundering\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009in particular drug trafficking and tax fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

The potential offences were \u201ccommitted in France but also\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009in all countries of the European Union\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n

Its move is an expansion of a probe that began in France in 2023 over whether Binance marketed services to consumers without regulatory approval, among other allegations.<\/p>\n

The exchange sought to draw a line under its past in late 2023, when it was fined a record $4.3bn by US officials in 2023 for failing to take measures against money laundering and breaches of international sanctions. <\/p>\n

Its co-founder, Changpeng Zhao, stepped down at the time as chief executive, and spent four months in prison. Richard Teng, Binance\u2019s new chief executive, vowed to enhance the company\u2019s compliance controls.<\/p>\n

\u201cBinance fully denies the allegations and will vigorously fight any charges made against it,\u201d the company said, adding that it was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d that the matter \u201cwhich is several years old\u201d is being further investigated by French authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The French probe relates to activities from 2019 to 2024, after users complained about losing money through investing on the exchange because of incomplete disclosure.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said the company \u201csent promotional communications\u201d to users in France \u201cvia influencers and advertising campaigns on social networks\u201d before Binance was registered with regulators, in breach of the law.<\/p>\n

Several years ago, French officials sought to woo Binance and Zhao in order to place the group\u2019s European headquarters in Paris as part of President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s push to make the country more tech friendly and boost the attractiveness of Paris as a financial hub. <\/p>\n

Macron met with Zhao at the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace in late 2021. Binance\u2019s services are still available to French customers.<\/p>\n

In 2022, France was also one of the first countries in Europe to give Binance a registered status that allowed it to market some services to French consumers, alongside other crypto platforms. <\/p>\n

The country\u2019s more accommodating stance contrasted with wariness from regulators in the UK and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Binance has repeatedly clashed with the UK\u2019s Financial Conduct Authority, which in 2023 blocked its attempts to market to British consumers.<\/p>\n

The public prosecutor said it had handed over the investigation to France\u2019s consumer protection and anti-fraud agencies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free French authorities have deepened their investigation into Binance on suspicion the world\u2019s largest cryptocurrency exchange broke European money laundering and terrorist financing laws. The public prosecutor said on Tuesday it had opened a judicial investigation into Binance as it was \u201clikely to have assisted in habitual money laundering\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009in particular<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[1226,1515,3830,3829,1103,104,1139],"class_list":{"0":"post-9740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-financial-crime","8":"tag-alleged","9":"tag-binance","10":"tag-deepens","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-laundering","13":"tag-money","14":"tag-probe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}