French investigators open fraud probe against crypto platform Binance

French investigators said on Tuesday they had opened a judicial probe into money laundering, tax fraud and other charges at Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, which said it denied the allegations.

The economic and financial crime section of the Paris public prosecutor's office (JUNALCO) said in a statement that the probe includes money laundering in connection with drug trafficking.

The investigation is examining the period from 2019 to 2024, involving offences committed in France but also in all European Union countries, JUNALCO said.

"Binance fully denies the allegations and will vigorously fight any charges made against it," a spokesperson for Binance said in an emailed statement, saying that the matter was "several years old".

Binance's troubled history

Binance's founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao was last year sentenced to four months in prison, after pleading guilty to violating U.S. laws against money laundering. Binance agreed to pay a $4.3 billion penalty.

Binance founder and former chief Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to violating U.S. law by failing to implement a program to prevent money laundering, arrives for his sentencing in federal district court in Seattle, Washington, U.S. April 30, 2024. Reuters

Following a years-long probe, U.S. prosecutors said Binance had employed a "Wild West" model that welcomed criminals, and did not report more than 100,000 suspicious transactions with designated terrorist groups.

The Binance spokesperson's statement on Tuesday said that Binance had made advances in its anti-money laundering (AML) and compliance, including implementing the global regulator's standards for AML and Know-Your-Customer checks (KYC) and had improved employee training.

User complaints trigger probe

France's investigation began after complaints from users who alleged they had lost money after investing via the platform, because of information they said had been incorrectly communicated to them, the prosecutor's office said.

The users also complained that the platform had been trading without obtaining the necessary approvals.

In June 2023, the Paris prosecutor's office said it had opened a preliminary investigation into Binance over illegal canvassing of clients and "aggravated money-laundering".

At the time, Binance's founder Zhao said in a post on X that the news was "FUD" - a term used in crypto circles to dismiss news perceived as negative.

Global context

Binance is also facing lawsuits and investigations in several countries.

This month, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed another case against Binance and Zhao to move forward. That lawsuit involved investors who accused Binance of illegally selling unregistered tokens, which lost much of their value.

In December, Australia's corporate watchdog said it had sued Binance's local derivatives business, alleging that its retail customers had been denied consumer protections after being misclassified as wholesale clients.

Regulators have long warned about crypto's role in crime. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global body responsible for tackling money laundering and terrorist financing, has previously warned that crypto assets "risk becoming a safe haven for the financial transactions of criminals and terrorists".

The crypto industry suffered a major setback in 2022, when a series of bankruptcies at top crypto firms exposed widespread fraud and misconduct and left millions of investors with heavy losses. But cryptocurrency prices have hit new highs in recent months, as U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a pro-crypto stance.