The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ratcheted up its ongoing legal battle with Binance.US, alleging a lack of cooperation from the cryptocurrency exchange on September 14th.
In a recent court filing, the SEC did not mince words, taking issue with Binance.US’s holding company, BAM, for providing a scant 220 documents during the discovery process.
What’s more, the SEC claimed that many of these documents were marred by incomprehensible content, and lacked essential dates or signatures.
The regulatory body went further, accusing BAM of dodging the production of crucial witnesses for deposition, opting to cooperate with only four depositions it deemed suitable.
Adding to the list of grievances, the SEC asserted that Binance.US responded to requests for pertinent communications with blanket objections and conveniently asserted that certain vital documents central to their business operations simply did not exist.
Ironically, the SEC later managed to obtain some of these supposedly nonexistent documents from alternative sources, raising significant concerns about the exchange’s transparency.
The SEC also expressed concerns about Binance.US’s use of Ceffu, a wallet custody software provided by the global entity Binance Holdings Ltd.
Inconsistent statements from BAM regarding Ceffu’s role in wallet and customer fund management attracted the SEC’s scrutiny.
Initially, BAM stated that Ceffu served as its wallet custody software and service provider but later shifted its stance, claiming that Binance fulfilled this role.
This inconsistency prompted the SEC to question whether Binance.US’s utilization of Ceffu violated a prior agreement aimed at preventing fund diversion overseas.
The SEC’s legal skirmish with Binance kicked off on June 5th, when the regulatory body leveled 13 charges against the cryptocurrency exchange. These charges encompassed unregistered securities offerings, along with allegations related to the Simple Earn and BNB Vault products and their staking programs.
