Binance.US, the American arm of crypto exchange Binance, is strengthening its legal team to fight the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by hiring top talent, including former co-director of the SEC’s enforcement division, George Canellos, Bloomberg reported. The crypto platform is preparing its defense against the SEC’s allegations of operating as an unregistered securities exchange.
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Binance.US Gears Up to Combat the SEC
Canellos is currently serving as the global head of the litigation and arbitration group of the international law firm Milbank LLP. Previously, he supervised about 1,300 attorneys at the SEC on several investigations, including the much-talked-about insider trading actions against Raj Rajaratnam.
“Binance is clearly preparing for a criminal prosecution and continuing to hire the best defense attorneys in the world,” tweeted former SEC internet enforcement chief John Reed Stark.
Aside from Canellos, Binance.US has reportedly hired three more lawyers from Milbank. Earlier this month, the SEC sued Binance.US, Binance, and its CEO Changpeng Zhao for alleged securities violations. Rival crypto exchange Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) is also facing the SEC’s wrath.
Last week, the regulatory body filed for a temporary restraining order to freeze Binance.US’s assets to protect customer funds. Meanwhile, Binance.US announced that it would no longer accept US Dollar deposits on its platform and will pause withdrawals effective June 13, as its banking partners pulled back in response to the SEC’s crackdown. It called the SEC’s actions “extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics.”
Amid all this chaos, Binance Coin (BNB-USD), the native currency of the crypto exchange, is trending higher as of writing but is slightly in the red year-to-date.
