Two more top executives depart Binance.US amid layoffs, SEC action: Report

Two more top executives are leaving Binance.US, one day after the departure of CEO Brian Shroder and the layoff of a third of its staff, The Wall Street Journal reported. Binance.US is the United States offshoot of the international cryptocurrency exchange. Head of legal Krishna Juvvadi and chief risk officer Sidney Majalya were said to be leaving.

Juvvadi was hired in May 2022, coming from Uber, where he was global head of compliance. Majalya joined the company in December 2021 after being Intel’s chief compliance officer. Before Intel, he, too, had worked for Uber.

Juvvadi, The WSJ noted, “was one of the company’s contacts for communicating with the SEC [United States Securities and Exchange Commission].” Binance.US is facing legal action from the SEC.

The agency requested to file sealed documents in the case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Aug. 28, which a former SEC official interpreted as possibly indicating a criminal probe by the Department of Justice. Bloomberg reported in May that a Justice Department probe of Binance was underway.

The SEC sued Binance.US, Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao in June, claiming they engaged in unregistered securities operations and other improprieties. That led to problems with Binance.US’ banking partners and pauses in U.S. dollar deposits and withdrawals that were only resolved in August, when the company partnered with crypto payments firm MoonPay.

Related: Binance’s Richard Teng denies FTX comparisons: ‘We welcome the scrutiny’

Binance.US has objected to SEC legal tactics, requesting a protective order against the agency in August and calling SEC requests in a compel and reply motion “unreasonable” and “unduly burdensome” on Sept. 12.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Binance in March, alleging it violated trading and derivatives rules. Binance has also seen the departures of executives this year, as well as layoffs.

Cointelegraph contacted Binance.US but did not receive a response in time for publication. 

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