The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has requested a federal judge to allow documents to be filed under seal in its civil case against Binance, Binance.US, and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ). According to former SEC official John Reed Stark, the request could hint at an ongoing criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into allegations of money laundering and potential violations of sanctions involving Russian entities.Binance has recently banned Russian residents from using fiat currencies other than the ruble and removed certain sanctioned Russian financial institutions from available payment options. The SEC filed a lawsuit against Binance, Binance.US, and CZ in June for allegedly offering unregistered securities to U.S. users and failing to register as an exchange or a broker-dealer clearing agency. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed a lawsuit against Binance and CZ, who filed motions to dismiss in July. Both cases were ongoing at the time of publication.

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Information	Details
Geography	North America
Countries	🇺🇸 🇭🇰
Sentiment	negative
Relevance Score	8
People	Changpeng Zhao, John Reed Stark
Companies	United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, U.S. Department of Justice, Binance.US, Binance
Currencies	Binance Coin, US Dollar, Russian Ruble, Ethereum, Bitcoin
Securities	None