Summary:
- Several senior executives including CSO Patrick Hillmann, SVP for compliance Steven Christie, and General Counsel Han Ng said they are leaving Binance.
- Mainstream media reported that these executives made the decision due to CZ’s response to lawsuits in the U.S.
- Binance CEO Changpeng rebuffed the reports as “FUD” and said the exits are simply part of a turnover.
Chief executive officer of crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, rebuffed reports that senior leadership exits are a sign that the company is about to crumble like former rival FTX. Zhao tweeted that the news surrounding these exits is “FUD”.
On Thursday, Fortune and EthereumWorldNews reported that senior executives at Binance informed CZ of their decision to leave the company. Zhao’s response to lawsuits from the U.S. Department of Justice was named as the primary reason why these company leaders are exiting.
Chief strategy officer Patrick Hillmann, senior vice president for compliance Steven Christie, and general counsel Han Ng are among the executives that are leaving Binance. While Hillmann and his colleagues confirmed their individual exits, they noted that the reasons are not connected to any supposed turbulence at the company or the legal issues with the DOJ.
Senior Execs Jump Ship As Binance Spars With Regulators
The exits come at a time when the SEC and DOJ are lodging accusations against crypto’s largest centralized exchange. Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued CZ for operating an unregistered securities exchange on American soil.
Zhao was also accused of knowingly commingling customer and corporate funds through several private entities like Merit Peak.
Reports claim that criminal charges from the U.S. Justice Department are imminent following a lawsuit from the SEC.
The company also faces regulatory hurdles in Europe particularly in Australia and France. French authorities raided the Binance office in Paris on suspicions of “aggravated money laundering”. Australia’s securities regulators pulled back its derivatives license and opened a “targetted review” of client classification at the exchange.