The US District Court in Washington has issued a subpoena to Changpeng Zhao, who is the CEO of Binance.
This came after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took legal action against the exchange for violating securities regulations. The subpoena stated that Changpeng Zhao was under criminal investigation.
The head of Binance, is not required to attend in person. However, he has been served with a subpoena and must respond to it within 21 days, according to the document.
The SEC has accused Binance of multiple violations of US securities laws.
Binance is challenging the SEC's allegations. The company said in a statement on the matter that it is different from other exchanges, implying that its operations are not like those of other failed exchanges, such as FTX.
Moreover, Binance officials denied allegations that they had taken funds from customers without permission and said that they had never made any significant donations to political candidates or provided any support to entertainment or media organisations.
On June 8, Binance.US will remove around 100 trading pairs and cease over-the-counter trading. Earlier, the SEC appealed to the court to force Binance's US unit to return fiat currency to customers.
This seems to be the way regulators and courts are trying to hold Binance accountable for any violations of the law from their perspective. The proceedings may drag on for some time, and there is no telling how this legal dispute between one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges and US regulators will end up.
