- The legal battle between Binance and the SEC saw a new turn lately. The exchange divulged that the chairperson of SEC wanted to be an advisor to the firm.
The incumbent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairperson once volunteered to be an ‘informal advisor’ to Binance. The lawyers representing the embattled crypto exchange divulged this fact to the court on June 4. The defendants asserted that Gensler should recuse himself from the case as his past relations with Binance raises some conflict of interest.
Job offer on the food table
They informed the court about a lunch meeting held between the CEO Changpeng Zhao and Gary Gensler in Japan in 2019. During this meetup, Gensler talked about the regulatory uncertainty revolving around cryptocurrency. He further offered to be an informal advisor to the exchange while discussing the future of BNB tokens and Binance.
The letter submitted by the exchange’s attorneys reveals that the two remained in touch after the meeting. It states that Zhao acknowledged the offer and pondered over it too. However, it didn’t happen and today, the two are facing each other in court.
Emphasizing on Gensler’s recusal, the letter repeats that the current chief of SEC should not be involved in this lawsuit. The correspondence also tells us that Gensler was supposed to produce a testimony before the House Financial Services Committee in 2019. However, he sent a copy of his statement to Zhao for advice.
Wall Street report says otherwise
The letter actually denounces a report published by Wall Street Journal in March this year. According to the media house’s report, Gensler got offers from multiple crypto firms to work as an advisor for them. But what Binance’s lawyers are saying goes against the prior news.
The exchange’s lawyers said that SEC has not given a clear statement about Gensler’s involvement in current legal proceedings. Recently, the regulatory body seemed to be training all its guns toward the leading exchange. Post filing the lawsuit, it also brought a restraining order to freeze all the assets owned by Binance US.
On June 13, the next hearing is slated to happen and the whole crypto community is keeping an eye on this. Also, on June 14, the SEC has to respond to the petition filed by Coinbase. According to it, the regulatory has to explain the reasons for not initiating a legal framework for crypto.
Conclusion
With new pages unfolding every day, the legal battle between the SEC and leading exchanges is getting interesting. As both sides are trying to justify their grounds, we’ll have to see whom the verdict will favor.
