Canada Fines Binance Over $4Million For Violating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing Laws
Canada’s anti-money laundering agency has imposed a nearly C$6 million ($4.38 million) fine on cryptocurrency exchange Binance for violating the country’s money laundering and terrorist financing laws.
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) on Thursday said Binance had failed to register as a foreign money services business with the intelligence body despite several deadlines.
According to Reuters, the anti-money laundering agency added that Binance, which ceased operations in Canada last year, had not reported receiving virtual currency worth C$10,000 or more on 5,902 separate occasions between June 1, 2021 and July 19, 2023. Binance did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.SaharaReporters reported last Tuesday that the founder and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao had been sentenced to four months in prison in the United States.
Zhao pleaded guilty in November 2023 to a money laundering charge. U.S. District Judge Richard Jones said in court last Tuesday that Zhao has also satisfied the requirement of him to pay $50 million in fines. The 47-year-old admitted to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by willfully failing to set up an effective anti-money laundering system at Binance.Zhoa founded and ran the cryptocurrency exchange as CEO from July 2017 to November 2023.
In March, SaharaReporters reported that a U.S. district court had ordered that Zhao must surrender his Canadian passport and notify the court before travelling within the country.
