A very cautious development has occurred by the law enforcement body in the United States. According to which the US Department of Justice has requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation to stop issuing letters of appreciation to crypto exchange – Binance. Binance used these appreciation notes from one of the top internal law enforcement agencies as evidence of assisting these agencies in criminal investigations. Nevertheless, this seems to be bothering the federal agents. As they debate that Binance is bound to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies by law.
Seems like Binance, which is a top cryptocurrency exchange, seems to have lost its prestige before government authorities. Binance requested some appreciation letters for their assistance and collaboration in the criminal investigations. However, according to a couple of people who know the whole matter, the Department of Justice asked the agencies to stop issuing such appreciation notes. One possibility behind this could also be the image and repute of the world-class law enforcement investigation agency, which could be questioned internationally, in case of any misadventure in the crypto scene, or any high-level scam.
Binance used these thank you notes from IRS and FBI publically, as a certification that it’s a law-abiding firm, however, Binance is compelled by law to help these government bodies in their investigations. Therefore, appreciation notes are kind of unnecessary. In simple words what the department of Justice thinks is that Binance is not going the extra mile with cooperating with law enforcement rather it is a responsibility to do so, by the law. Therefore appreciation letters are not essential.
In a recent talk with Bloomberg, Binance spokesperson said:
“They engage with law enforcement and regulators in a collaborative fashion. to battle cybercrime as a part of our continuous attempt to help shape the industry into a better place. The letters speak for themselves, which we received, with an affirmation of our help.”
Anyhow, the FBI and IRS have issued these notes to Binance before and Binance has previously shown various examples of appreciation notes from officials. However, some notes have the same phrasing.
A California Police Department detective; Robert Gonzalez, told Bloomberg in an interview that Binance used to send some sort of letter templates. But he would make few alterations before signing them. Binance, however, always helped him in many forms, he added. But seems like these thank you notes are improbable to assist Binance with investigations, these agencies are conducting regarding the exchange. As per sources, the IRS and Department of Justice are investigating Binance on tax offenses and money laundering suspicions. They have been investigating Binance employees since last May. The point to note here is that Binance doesn’t hold any offices in the United States. Rather it founded a separate company for their US customers which is called BInance.us.
