The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) was hit by a lawsuit by four people who are victims or families of victims of state-sponsored terrorism over a $4.3 billion settlement with Binance.
According to the document filed on Sept. 23, the DoJ improperly held on to too much of the settlement, which was meant to be placed into a fund for victims of state-sponsored terrorism.
The details
The lawsuit claims that under the Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act, 100% of criminal proceeds and 75% of civil proceeds from settlements such as this one should be deposited in the fund. The lawsuit accuses the regulator of only putting just over $898.6 million into the fund out of the $4.3 billion.
Instead, the document suggests that the victim fund should have received “at least $1.5 billion,” and the funds are being withheld illegally. The lawsuit seeks a court order that would force the DoJ to deposit all the allegedly qualifying assets into the victim fund.
In addition to the Department of Justice, the lawsuit also includes the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Treasury Department along with its agencies, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control among its defendants.
The news follows Changpeng Zhao — then CEO of the world’s top cryptocurrency exchange Binance — pleading guilty to a felony over criminal and civil cases with the exchange. As reported by industry news outlet Cointelegraph at the time, Garland said at the time that the exchange only “pretended to comply” with U.S. federal laws and added:
“Binance prioritized its profits over the safety of the American people.”
The news follows Nigeria detaining two Binance executives back in March. The two are Binance’s criminal investigations team Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla the regional manager for Africa based in Kenya.
Since then, recent reports indicate that United States officials have started pressuring Nigeria to release a former executive of leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
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