A Spanish court has kicked off an investigation into the crypto giant over some serious allegations of embezzlement dating back to 2021.
Local media is full with a guy known as “JL” who’s not too happy with the exchange after they refused to hand back his €67,550 investment.
Follow the money?
Judge María Ángeles Velázquez, the one presiding over this drama, seems to think JL has a point. She’s found enough grounds for a criminal investigation based on the claims.
JL, a businessman from Spain, claims he deposited his hard-earned cash on Binance but was left high and dry without an access code to his account.
After two years of trying to get his money back with no luck, he decided it was time to call in the lawyers.
The judge has given JL ten days to gather evidence and potentially request penalties against Binance. If he can’t back up his claims with solid proof, though, this whole thing might just fizzle out.
International pressure
Just as this case heats up, Binance is also facing scrutiny in France too. Paris prosecutors are looking into whether the exchange turned a blind eye to its KYC obligations, which could have allowed money laundering to slip through the cracks on its platform.
Binance has denied these allegations and is ready to fight back.
And if that wasn’t enough, the French investigation is digging into whether Binance operated as a digital-asset service provider without proper regulatory approval before 2022.
This mess dates back to 2019 and stretches across the entire European Union.
Brave new world?
Binance faced a similar situation in the US where the Supreme Court gave the green light for a class action lawsuit.
Former investors are accusing them of selling unregistered tokens, and it’s definitely not a good look!
Binance argued that the lawsuit shouldn’t even be happening since they believe the US courts don’t have jurisdiction over them.
Either way, Binance isn’t throwing in the towel just yet. They’re trying to turn things around by rebranding Binance Labs as an independent research institution.
This move even allows CEO CZ to join in on the fun, despite being banned from the exchange for life.
