Binance seeks court’s protection against US SEC’s probe

• The US SEC charged Binance for offering unregistered securities in the United States.
• The SEC then went ahead to seek for the freezing of Binance.US assets although the two later reached an agreement.
• Binance.US is now complaining that the SEC is overstepping its mandate according to the agreement.

Binance.US, the US subsidiary of Binance, has filed to limit the extent of investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its case against the cryptocurrency exchange.

The SEC attempted to freeze all of Binance.US’s assets in June after expressing worries about the security of clients’ digital assets owned by the company. However, the US arm of Binance, doing business as BAM Trading Services and BAM Management US Holdings, entered into an agreement with the SEC as a result.

The agreement, which some commentators referred to as “burdensome” gave the SEC permission to conduct “limited expedited discovery” about the custody and accessibility of client funds.

SEC’s investigations into Binance.US

Binance in a late Monday filing claimed that the SEC’s discovery demands have exceeded the parameters set forth in the consent agreement and constitute an improper “fishing expedition.”

In particular, Binance.US asserts that the SEC is requesting lengthy correspondence and deposition evidence from firm executives on “dozens of topics” irrelevant to client assets, including its CEO and CFO, who the filing argues have no understanding of the custody concerns at the heart of the matter.

Binance’s request states that the company “worked in good faith to respond to the SEC’s requests” by supplying hundreds of documents, providing depositions from staff members knowledgeable about asset security, and taking actions to guarantee assets are in US custody.

The crypto exchange, in its protective request to the court, argues that despite years of investigation by the SEC and all the provided information, “the SEC still has not identified the slightest evidence that customer assets have been misused or mishandled in any way.” It also opposes deposing top executives like the CEO and CFO stating that that would be unproductive, unduly burdensome, and disruptive to operations.

The crypto exchange suggests that the SEC should first investigate employees responsible for asset custody since they are the ones with “far deeper knowledge” about digital asset custody.