In a recent move, a federal judge in charge of the case of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) versus Binance US, has ruled out a judgement in regulator’s favour. The judge denied exchange’s motion to stop SEC from making any public statements related to the case.
On Monday, the motion was discussed in the the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Following which, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, stated that the court was not required to intervene regarding the basis for a motion from parties affiliated with Binance and Binance.US. However she said that both parties should adhere to the moral and ethical obligations. She stated:
While all of the lawyers in this case should adhere to their ethical obligations at all times, it is not apparent that Court intervention to reiterate that point is needed at this time, or that it is necessary or appropriate for the Court to get involved in wordsmithing the parties’ press releases.
Further, judge Jackson stated that there’s no guarantee that the regulator’s public statements would have any standing in the court. She implied that any practices sought by the SEC would not necessarily affect the ongoing case. Quoting her:
Nor is it clear that the agency’s public relations efforts to date will materially affect proceedings in this case.
Notably, on June 21st, the legal teams for Binance, Binance US branch and CZ filed a motion for the financial regulator to comply with “applicable rules of conduct” and claimed the SEC made “misleading” statements in their press release. The filing outlined the statements from Gurbir Grewal, SEC director of enforcement, wherein the regulator claimed CZ and Binance could “commingle customer assets or divert customer assets as they please” and an order requiring all parties involved in the lawsuit to return to the United States.
The exchange stated that SEC’s statements had the potential of “tainting the jury pool” and introducing “unwarranted confusion into the marketplace.” Both the parties have been involved in taking shots at each other and pointing out their fallacies.
Notably, Binance, Binance US branch and CZ are on the list of targets for the SEC currently. The SEC’s lawsuit dated June 5th against the Binance US explicitly pointed out these entities and held them responsible for commingling funds and operating without a license. It alleged that the exchanges offered unregistered securities to U.S. customers and Binance failed to register as an exchange or a broker-dealer clearing agency.
Following this, the SEC filed an emergency motion to freeze the assets of Binance US claiming it to be an effort to safeguard US citizens’ money from Binance’s ill motives. However, the motion didn’t pass through and judge Jackson ordered both the parties to settle on mutually comfortable terms.
To this, the parties signed a deal promising repatriation of all customers funds. While the assets didn’t freeze, Binance’s services have been largely affected. Following the lawsuit, the exchange delisted several trading pairs and also announced to halt USD services and in large the global wing has been affected too.
Currently, Binance is thriving in a pool of investigations and actions from regulators across the globe including Brazil, Belgium, Netherlands and France. While the Brazil and French authorities accuse it of operating illegally, Dutch authorities have placed a fine and denied license leading to eventual termination of services in the region.
In the past weeks, Binance was incurred huge outflows and as reported by Todayq News Bitcoin continues to sell at $1,000 price lower than the usual price. Notably, while the exchange is trying to keep its spirit high and put a good fight, several instances including the leaked chats have called its legitimacy into question and an eventual uncertainty and fear among investors.