Binance to challenge US SEC’s fraud charges, seeks dismissal

Binance, the largest cryptocurrency firm in the world, plans to challenge fraud cases filed against it by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

According to a Reuters report, Binance, will on Friday, seek dismissal of the fraud cases in a federal court in Washington.

In November 2023, SEC accused Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s chief executive officer (CEO) and founder, of money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting and violations in Seattle.

Binance was also accused of facilitating the trading of several crypto tokens the SEC deemed as securities.

While Zhao pleaded guilty to the charges, Binance also agreed to pay more than $4 billion in fines and other penalties, according to the federal authorities.

The report said Binance seeks to convince the federal judge to drop the case SEC filed against the crypto exchange in June.

In previous filings, Binance had always said SEC has not made its case that the firm committed fraud.

The crypto firm also said SEC does not have the authority to oversee crypto assets.

This marks the second major court hearing between the regulator and a top crypto exchange within a week – the first was Coinbase on Wednesday.

Coinbase had also made the same argument as Binance — while seeking the dismissal of SEC case against the company — that the regulator is not authorised to supervise crypto assets.