本月以来，“币圈”风波不断。在波场（Tron）创始人、火币（Huobi）全球顾问委员会成员孙宇晨（Justin Sun）于美东时间3月22日被美国证券交易委员会（SEC）起诉后，刚刚，美东时间3月27日（周一），美国商品期货交易委员会（下称CFTC）又起诉全球最大加密货币交易所币安（Binance）及其CEO赵长鹏涉嫌违反监管措施。

据悉，CFTC于美东时间3月27日在芝加哥联邦法院提起了上述诉讼。CFTC表示，币安没有在其注册，从而逃避了一系列其应尽的义务。据CFTC官网，其指控赵长鹏和三家运营币安平台的实体多次违反《商品交易法（CEA）》和CFTC的其他法规。CFTC指控币安和其三个实体通过一个故意的、不透明的共同企业运营集中式数字资产交易平台以及众多的其他企业工具。据称，被告还曾故意无视CEA的适用条款，并为了商业利益参与了精心策划的监管套利。CFTC寻求赔偿、民事赔偿、永久的市场禁入，以及禁止其进一步违反CEA和CFTC法规。赵长鹏出生于江苏连云港，是一名华裔加拿大企业家。

2021年年底，在比特币等众多加密货币大涨的背景下，赵长鹏当时曾凭借941亿美元（约合6348亿元人民币）身家荣登华人首富，同时也跻身世界十大富豪，扬名全球。

以下是美国CFTC起诉全球最大加密货币交易所币安（Binance）及其CEO赵长鹏的公告全文、起诉状全文：

Release Number 8680-23

CFTC Charges Binance and Its Founder, Changpeng Zhao, with Willful Evasion of Federal Law and Operating an Illegal Digital Asset Derivatives Exchange

March 27, 2023

Washington, D.C. — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced it hasfiled a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois charging Changpeng Zhao and three entities that operate the Binance platform with numerous violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations. The complaint also charges Samuel Lim, Binance’s former chief compliance officer, with aiding and abetting Binance’s violations.

The complaint charges that Binance Holdings Limited, Binance Holdings (IE) Limited, and Binance (Services) Holdings Limited (together, Binance) operate the Binance centralized digital asset trading platform along with numerous other corporate vehicles through an intentionally opaque common enterprise, with Zhao at the helm as Binance’s owner and chief executive officer. The defendants allegedly chose to knowingly disregard applicable provisions of the CEA while engaging in a calculated strategy of regulatory arbitrage to their commercial benefit. 

In its continuing litigation against the defendants, the agency seeks disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the CEA and CFTC regulations, as charged.

“Today’s enforcement action demonstrates that there is no location, or claimed lack of location, that will prevent the CFTC from protecting American investors. I have been clear that the CFTC will continue to use all of its authority to find and stop misconduct in the volatile and risky digital asset market,” said CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam. “For years, Binance knew they were violating CFTC rules, working actively to both keep the money flowing and avoid compliance. This should be a warning to anyone in the digital asset world that the CFTC will not tolerate willful avoidance of U.S. law. I applaud the diligent and dedicated work of the CFTC’s Enforcement team in bringing this action, and for their hard work in addressing illegal operations in the digital asset space.”

“Defendants’ alleged willful evasion of U.S. law is at the core of the Commission’s complaint against Binance. The defendants’ own emails and chats reflect that Binance’s compliance efforts have been a sham and Binance deliberately chose – over and over – to place profits over following the law,” said Gretchen Lowe, CFTC’s Enforcement Division Principal Deputy Director and Chief Counsel. “Today’s enforcement action reflects that the CFTC and its Enforcement Division will pursue those digital asset platforms and individuals who flout and actively attempt to circumvent CFTC regulatory requirements. I thank the Enforcement team for their dedication and hard work in bringing this action.”

Case Background

According to the complaint, Binance has offered and executed commodity derivatives transactions to and for U.S. persons from July 2019 through the present. As alleged, Binance’s compliance program has been ineffective and, at Zhao’s direction, Binance has instructed its employees and customers to circumvent compliance controls in order to maximize corporate profits.

The complaint charges that for much of the relevant period, Binance did not require its customers to provide any identity-verifying information before trading on the platform, despite the legal duty that entities like Binance functioning as futures commission merchants (FCMs) collect such information, and failed to implement basic compliance procedures designed to prevent and detect terrorist financing and money laundering.

The complaint further alleges that even after Binance purported to restrict U.S. customers from trading on its platform, Binance instructed its customers – in particular its commercially valuable U.S.-based VIP customers – on the best methods for evading Binance’s compliance controls. In addition, the complaint charges Binance with acting as a designated contract market or swap execution facility based on its role in facilitating derivatives transactions without registering with the CFTC, as required.

The complaint also charges the entity defendants with failing to diligently supervise Binance’s activities as an FCM. Among the numerous supervisory failures detailed in the complaint is Binance’s instruction to employees to communicate with U.S.-based customers concerning control evasion through a messaging application that was set to automatically delete written communications. According to the complaint, the reason Binance used that communication method was to avoid leaving any evidence of their efforts to retain U.S.-based customers. 

The complaint further charges the Binance, Zhao and Lim with willful evasion of the requirements of the CEA. As alleged, the defendants conducted certain activities outside the U.S. designed to avoid CFTC regulation, such as intentionally structuring their entities and transactions to avoid registration requirements and instructing U.S. customers as well as other customers as to how to evade Binance’s compliance controls.

As alleged, Zhao is liable for Binance’s violations based on his control over Binance and his long-running failure to act in good faith concerning Binance’s misconduct. According to the complaint, Zhao owned and controlled dozens of entities that operate the Binance platform as a common enterprise. Zhao is alleged to have been responsible for all major strategic decisions at Binance, including devising the secret plot to instruct U.S.-based VIP customers to evade Binance’s compliance controls and instructing Binance employees to ensure all communications about their control subversion took place over applications that facilitated the automatic destruction of evidence. 

Lim, Binance’s CCO from 2018 through 2022, is charged with willfully aiding and abetting Binance’s violations through intentional conduct that undermined Binance’s compliance program. Lim is also charged with conducting activities to willfully evade or attempt to evade applicable provisions of the CEA, including promoting the use of “creative means” to assist customers in circumventing Binance’s compliance controls and implementing a corporate policy that instructed Binance’s U.S. customers to access the trading facility through a virtual private network to avoid Binance’s IP address-based controls or create “new” accounts through off-shore shell companies to evade Binance’s KYC-based controls.

The Division of Enforcement staff responsible for this matter are Candy Haan, Joseph Platt, Joseph Patrick, Matthew Edelstein, Ray Lavko, Elizabeth N. Pendleton, Scott R. Williamson, and Robert T. Howell. 

 * * * * * * * 

Customers and other individuals can report suspicious activities or information, such as possible violations of commodity trading laws, to the Division of Enforcement via a toll-free hotline 866-FON-CFTC (866-366-2382), file a tip or complaint online, or contact the CFTC Whistleblower Office at whistleblower.gov. Whistleblowers are eligible to receive between 10 and 30 percent of the monetary sanctions collected paid from the CFTC Customer Protection Fund financed through monetary sanctions paid to the CFTC by violators of the Commodity Exchange Act.   

END

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