特別レポート – 仮想通貨大手バイナンスは顧客資金と会社収益を混同していた、と元関係者が語る

［5月23日 ロイター］ – 世界最大の仮想通貨取引所バイナンスは、顧客の資金を分離して保管することを義務付ける米国の金融規則に違反し、2020年と2021年に顧客の資金を会社の収益と混同したと、この件に詳しい関係者3人がロイターに語った。

情報筋の１人、バイナンスグループの財務に直接詳しい関係者によると、その額は数十億ドルに達し、同取引所が保有する米国の金融業者シルバーゲート銀行の口座ではほぼ毎日、不正が行われていたという。ロイターはその数字や頻度を独自に検証できなかった。しかし同通信社は、2021年2月10日にバイナンスが企業口座からの2000万ドルと顧客からの資金を受け取った口座からの1500万ドルを混ぜ合わせていたことを示す銀行記録を調べた。

ロイター通信が報じたバイナンスの資金の流れは、顧客の資金が明確に識別可能で会社の収益から分離されていることを保証する内部統制が欠如していることを示していると元米国規制当局者３人が述べた。これらの資金が混在することで所在が不明瞭になり、顧客の資産が危険にさらされるとしている。バイナンスの顧客は「自分のお金がどこにあるのかを見つけるために法医学会計士を必要とするべきではない」と証券取引委員会インターネット執行局の元主任ジョン・リード・スターク氏は述べた。

ロイターは、バイナンス顧客の資金が紛失または流出したという証拠を発見しなかった。

SEC委員長のゲーリー・ゲンスラー氏は、米国の顧客に証券を提供している仮想通貨取引所の多くが、登録ブローカーディーラーに対し、顧客の資金を企業資産から分離して保護することを義務付ける法律を遵守していないと述べた。同氏は5月のイベントで「彼らのビジネスモデルは顧客の資金を受け取り、それを混ぜることで構築される傾向がある」と語った。SECは今年、一連の仮想通貨企業の取り締まりを開始したが、バイナンスを直接的な強制執行の対象にはしていなかった。

米国商品先物取引委員会は3月に同取引所に対する訴状の中で、バイナンスは米国人のアクセスを制限すると公に主張していたにもかかわらず、2019年から今年まで米国の顧客にそのプラットフォームでの取引を許可していた、と主張した。バイナンスはブログで米国のユーザーをブロックしていると回答した。

バイナンスはロイターへの声明で、顧客の預金と会社の資金を混同していたことを否定した。「これらのアカウントはユーザーの入金を受け入れるために使用されたものではありません。ユーザーの仮想通貨の購入を容易にするために使用されていた」と広報担当者のブラッド・ジャッフェ氏は述べた。「これらは100％企業の資金であるため、いかなる時点においても混合は発生しませんでした。」同氏によると、ユーザーがこの口座に送金するとき、彼らは資金を預けているのではなく、取引所特製のドル連動暗号トークンであるBUSDを購入しているという。このプロセスは「アマゾンから商品を購入するのと全く同じことだった」とジャッフェ氏は言う。

元米国規制当局はロイターに対し、バイナンスの説明は、送金は預金であるという取引所自身の顧客に対する以前の表明によって損なわれたと語った。2020年末から2021年にかけて、バイナンスのウェブサイトは顧客に対し、ドル送金は「預金」であり、BUSDの形で取引口座に「入金」されると説明していた。顧客は、預金をドルとして「引き出す」ことができると言われました。これらの表明により、顧客の資金が従来の現金預金と同じ方法で保護されるという期待が生じたと元規制当局は述べた。

元SEC職員のスターク氏は、「こうした表現は常に明確でなければならない」と述べた。

ロイターはバイナンスに対し、ドル預金を「購入」とみなすとユーザーに伝えたことがあるかと尋ねた。バイナンスはこれについて何の証拠も示さず、「『入金』という用語はコミュニケーション用語であり、資金の技術的な取り扱いを示すものではない」と述べた。

顧客資金と企業資金の混合は、金融会社の顧客にとって大きな損失の前兆となる可能性があります。12月、SECとCFTCは、破綻した仮想通貨取引所FTXの創始者であるサム・バンクマン・フリード氏が長年にわたって顧客の資金を取引会社で混ぜ合わせ、その資金をベンチャーキャピタルへの投資、政治献金、不動産購入の資金調達に使用していたと主張した。バンクマン・フリード氏は詐欺容疑で無罪を主張し、故意に資金を混ぜ合わせたわけではないと述べた。

バイナンスのバンカー

Bank and company records for 2019-2021, seen by Reuters, and interviews with former insiders show that Binance used Silvergate Bank, the U.S. lender that collapsed in March, as the lynchpin of its financial operations. Silvergate, which is in the process of winding down operations, did not comment for this article.

Company revenues entered the Silvergate account of the exchange’s Cayman Islands holding firm, Binance Holdings, according to the sources and bank records. Customer dollars flowed into the Silvergate account of a firm in the Seychelles called Key Vision Development that was controlled by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

One of the sources and a fourth person with direct knowledge of this account said Binance told Silvergate the Key Vision account’s purpose was to receive dollar deposits from non-U.S. customers. Jaffe, the Binance spokesperson, said this was inaccurate, without providing further details.

According to the sources and the February 2021 bank record seen by Reuters, Binance mixed customer money and company revenues in a third Silvergate account, belonging to a Zhao-controlled Cayman firm. Binance converted money from this third account into the dollar-linked token BUSD, according to the person with knowledge of Binance’s group finances and company messages. Blockchain records show Binance bought at least $18 billion of BUSD between January 2020 and December 2021.

The former regulators told Reuters that moving money between accounts and into crypto could have enabled Binance to shield funds from tax authorities in countries where it operates. The person with group-level knowledge of Binance said there was also another motivation: Zhao distrusted banks, once telling an interviewer of his concern that they could freeze his company’s accounts. So Binance turned cash into crypto, commingling customer funds and revenues in the process.

The new insights into Binance’s financial operations come as the company is facing civil charges from the CFTC of willful evasion of U.S. commodities laws by “intentionally structuring entities and transactions” to avoid U.S. regulations. The CFTC also alleged, without elaborating, that some of Binance’s corporate entities, including the Cayman holding firm, “have commingled funds.” Zhao called the charges “disappointing” and an “incomplete recitation of facts.” Binance is also under investigation by the Justice Department for suspected money laundering and sanctions violations, according to people familiar with the probe.

The CFTC declined to comment for this article, citing pending litigation, as did the SEC. The DOJ had no comment.

Binance has grown into a juggernaut in recent years, accounting for as much as 70% of world trading in cryptocurrencies. The company initially did business solely in crypto, enabling it to avoid the global banking system. But as Binance attracted more customers and hired more employees, its need for conventional bank accounts grew – to deposit the dollars it received from clients, to pay wages and other expenses, and to finance investments.

Silvergate, which specialised in serving the crypto industry, made this possible – until early March of this year, when the bank announced its closure after customers pulled deposits amid a wave of turmoil. The same month, New York’s chief financial regulator took over another crypto-friendly bank, Signature Bank, where Binance was also a client.

米国の仮想通貨セクターに対する取り締まりが加速する中、どの銀行がバイナンス運営の次の要となるかは不透明だ。趙氏はツイッターで、新たな銀行パートナーを探していると述べた。「1つのドアが閉まると、他のドアが開く」と同氏は3月27日に書いた。ロイターは現在バイナンスの主幹事銀行家を誰が務めているか特定できていない。

複雑なウェブ

2017年7月に上海で取引所を立ち上げてから5か月後、チャオ氏は報道機関テック・イン・アジアに対し、顧客が仮想通貨のみで資金を預けているためバイナンスには銀行パートナーがいないと語った。趙氏は伝統的な通貨に関して「法定通貨を扱えば扱うほど、（当局は）より多くのコントロールを行うことができるようになる」と述べた。元従業員らによると、彼は会社の請求書の決済に個人のクレジットカードを使用していたという。

But the situation changed in 2018 when Binance sought to launch several local exchanges where customers could buy crypto with traditional currencies. Zhao dispatched his deputies to find banks and payment firms willing to accept Binance as a client. Chief among these deputies was Guangying Chen, the head of Binance’s back office. Chinese-born Chen was one of the few employees Zhao trusted with Binance’s finances, former executives said. Chen did not respond to questions about her role.

Binance had limited success obtaining bank accounts for its small local units, however. Most major banks turned the exchange down due to compliance concerns over crypto companies’ source of funds, according to company messages and former executives.

Then Silvergate came to the rescue. In recent years, the small San Diego-based bank had shifted its focus from local real-estate lending to servicing crypto companies. It quickly became a leading provider of banking services to the crypto sector.

By 2019, Binance had opened a Silvergate account for its Cayman-based holding company, Binance Holdings Limited, to receive revenues earned by the exchange. The account was handled by Chen and a finance executive who reported to her, Susan Li, company records show. Li didn’t comment for this article.

Binance then opened two further Silvergate accounts: for Seychelles firm Key Vision Development and Cayman Islands-based Merit Peak, both incorporated on Jan. 15, 2019 and controlled by Zhao, according to filings and bank records. Binance’s online platform began instructing customers to “deposit” their dollars into the Key Vision account. After users transferred funds to Key Vision, they received an email from Binance telling them they had “successfully deposited” their dollars, according to screenshots posted online by traders. Users could also “withdraw” their deposits via Binance’s platform, which said it would wire the dollars to their bank accounts.

Binance Holdings, Key Vision and Merit Peak formed the core of the global crypto exchange’s financial network. But inside Binance, few employees had full visibility over their roles. Access to information about the Binance group’s overall finances and its bank accounts was tightly managed by Chen, a half-dozen former executives said. Chen’s team also had access to a Silvergate account belonging to Binance’s purportedly independent U.S. partner, Binance.US, which Zhao in fact controls, as Reuters has previously reported. Binance.US told Reuters that only Binance.US executives have access to its bank accounts.

Binance’s then-chief compliance officer, Samuel Lim, was concerned by the exchange’s dependence on Silvergate due to requirements that U.S. banks closely monitor clients’ transactions, company messages show. Lim told executives in a 2020 message seen by Reuters that “the long term fix is to reduce reliance on US bank.” The CFTC complaint in March charged Lim with aiding and abetting Binance in violating U.S. laws “through intentional conduct that undermined Binance’s compliance program.” Lim has not publicly responded to the charge and did not comment for this article.

The person with direct knowledge of Binance’s group finances said Zhao shared Lim’s distrust of banks and instructed the finance team to keep dollar balances in the Silvergate accounts as low as possible. Dollars in the Binance Holdings account and Key Vision customer funds account that were surplus to immediate business needs were transferred to the Merit Peak account, where they were commingled, the source said. Money from the Merit Peak account was then used to purchase Binance’s BUSD token, according to the source and company messages. BUSD and other “stablecoins” are backed by dollars and designed to hold a steady value.

Reuters couldn’t determine the value of BUSD tokens purchased in this way. But blockchain data show that between January 2020 and December 2021, BUSD’s issuer, New York-based Paxos Trust, transferred at least $18 billion of BUSD to Binance. Binance received the BUSD in at least two wallets that it has previously identified as its own, without saying whether they contain company or customer funds. A Paxos spokesperson said that between late 2019 and early 2023 Binance sent Paxos dollars in return for BUSD “for it and its customers.”

The money flow between Binance and Paxos also could be reversed, according to the person with group-level knowledge and company messages. When Key Vision needed dollars to meet customer withdrawals, for instance, Binance would redeem BUSD at Paxos, which in return would send dollars to Merit Peak’s Silvergate account. Merit Peak would then distribute the dollars to other accounts as needed.

The value of BUSD tokens in circulation peaked at over $23 billion last November, with Binance-controlled crypto wallets holding as much as 90% of the total, according to crypto data firm Nansen. But in February, New York regulators ordered Paxos to stop issuing BUSD, citing Paxos’ failures in risk assessments and due diligence checks.

The Paxos spokesperson said the company “voluntarily announced its intention to end its relationship with Binance and has been successfully winding down all business relationships with Binance since.”

Since Paxos stopped issuing BUSD, Binance has reduced its holdings of the coin to around $3 billion, according to Nansen. Reuters could not determine why Binance reduced these holdings or how it converted them.

Money from other sources also entered Merit Peak’s account, including hundreds of millions of dollars from a Binance.US account, Reuters has previously reported. Bank records show the Binance.US account was operated by Chen. Binance.US told Reuters Merit Peak “was withdrawing funds from its own account.” It didn’t respond to follow up questions.

直接の事情を知る2人の関係者によると、シルバーゲートはバイナンスに対し、キービジョンのアカウントを2021年半ばに閉鎖すると通告した。関係者の１人によると、詳細は明らかにしなかったが、シルバーゲートはキー・ビジョンが保管銀行口座として不適切な取引を行ったことに基づいて決定を下したという。同年6月、バイナンスはユーザーに電子メールを送り、シルバーゲートを通じた「米ドル入金」が「中止」されることを伝えた。ユーザーの取引の情報源とスクリーンショットによると、バイナンスはその後、顧客の資金を受け取るためにシグネチャー・バンクのキー・ビジョン・アカウントの使用を開始した。Signature Bankはこの記事に対してコメントを出していない。

バイナンスの広報担当者ジャッフェ氏は、Key Visionアカウントに関するこの報道は不正確だと述べたが、それ以上の詳細は明らかにしなかった。

バルト海の基地

Binance’s financial network also required a reliable euro bank account, former executives said. The exchange found a solution in Lithuania which provided a European Union base and a straightforward registration process. In May 2020, Binance set up the Lithuanian company, initially called Binance UAB, with Zhao as its sole shareholder and Chen as a board member. Binance later unveiled the firm, renamed as Bifinity, as its “official fiat-to-crypto payments provider.” Zhao installed Helen Hai, Binance’s China-born head of fiat operations, as president. Hai didn’t comment for this article.

In 2021, Bifinity had revenue of 680 million euros, according to its financial report, and paid over 420 million euros to a single unnamed related party. The person with direct knowledge of Binance’s group finances identified the unnamed party as Binance Holdings. Bifinity did not respond to questions from Reuters.

One consequence of Binance’s financial manoeuvring, four former Binance executives said, was to protect the exchange’s profits from tax authorities. Binance has never disclosed where its Binance.com trading platform is based nor what corporate taxes it pays and where.

To assess how much tax Binance pays, Reuters reviewed the exchange’s public filings since 2018 in countries where it has said it has significant operations. In France and Dubai, where Binance established hubs last year, local units have not detailed tax payments. France’s finance ministry declined to comment and Dubai didn’t comment. In Malta, where Binance said it was based for several years, its main local unit reported losses each year, so it paid no tax. Maltese authorities didn’t comment. The only significant tax payments Reuters found were in Lithuania, where in 2022 Bifinity paid 42.5 million euros, data from Lithuania’s tax authority show.

With the growth in Bifinity’s business came a higher profile. In July 2021, Lithuania’s central bank said it had warned Binance not to provide unlicensed investment services. Six months later the exchange appointed Saulius Galatiltis, who previously ran the central bank’s investment management department, as chief executive of Bifinity.

When Lithuania’s parliament debated a new bill to toughen rules for the country’s crypto companies last year, Galatiltis urged a parliamentary committee to avoid stricter legislation. He emphasised Bifinity’s tax payments, which last year made it one of Lithuania’s largest corporate taxpayers. “This business is global, in many countries all over the world,” Galatiltis told the committee, discussing Bifinity. “I think a business which acts globally and pays tax locally must be attractive to any country,” he said. Galatiltis didn’t respond to requests for comment for this article.

議会は最終的に、骨抜きの一連の規則を可決した。リトアニア財務省はロイターに対し、ビフィニティは他の機関や市場参加者とともに法案に対する「コメントや提案を提供する」正式なプロセスに関与していると語った。「私たちは単一の団体に基づいて規制政策を決定することは決してありません。」