LONDON - A senior Binance executive was the main operator for five bank accounts belonging to the giant cryptocurrency exchange’s purportedly independent U.S. affiliate, including an account that held American customers’ funds, bank records show.
In response to questions for this article, however, a Binance.US spokesperson, Christian Hertenstein, said that since the company’s current chief executive, Brian Shroder, took over in late 2021, “no one other than Binance.US officials have had control or access to Binance.US accounts.” Hertenstein did not explain the discrepancy in the time periods given by him and Juvvadi.
Reuters has previously reported that a deputy of Chen’s had access to one Binance.US Silvergate account and that the account transferred more than $400 million in 2021 to a trading firm controlled by Zhao. Binance.US has said the trading firm, Merit Peak, was withdrawing its own funds, money that derived from its trading activity on the exchange. Juvvadi said an investigation Binance.US conducted into Reuters’ previous findings found they were “simply not true.
Chen then signed further agreements with Silvergate to act as the “Primary Admin User” for the five bank accounts: a customer deposit account; an account for corporate clients that later sent funds to Merit Peak; and three other accounts, according to bank records dated between December 2019 and January 2020. The agreements said the authorized person could withdraw funds from the accounts or deposit them, and designate others to do so, too.