ÖZEL RAPOR-Kripto devi Binance, müşteri fonlarını ve şirket gelirini birleştirdi, diyor eski içerdekiler

23 Mayıs (Reuters) – Konuya yakın üç kaynağın Reuters’e verdiği bilgiye göre, dünyanın en büyük kripto para borsası Binance, müşteri parasının ayrı tutulmasını gerektiren ABD mali kurallarını ihlal ederek 2020 ve 2021’de müşteri fonlarını şirket gelirleriyle birleştirdi.

Kaynaklardan biri, Binance’in grup finansmanı hakkında doğrudan bilgisi olan bir kişi, meblağların milyarlarca doları bulduğunu ve borsanın ABD’li borç veren Silvergate Bank’ta tuttuğu hesaplarda neredeyse her gün karışmanın meydana geldiğini söyledi. Reuters, rakamları veya sıklığı bağımsız olarak doğrulayamadı. Ancak haber ajansı, 10 Şubat 2021’de Binance’in kurumsal bir hesaptan 20 milyon doları müşteri parası alan bir hesaptan 15 milyon dolarla karıştırdığını gösteren bir banka kaydını inceledi.

Üç eski ABD düzenleyicisi, Reuters tarafından açıklanan Binance’teki para akışlarının, müşteri fonlarının açıkça tanımlanabilir olmasını ve şirket gelirlerinden ayrılmasını sağlayacak iç kontrollerin olmadığını gösterdiğini söyledi. Bu fonların bir araya getirilmesinin müşteri varlıklarını, nerede olduklarını gizleyerek riske attığını söylediler. Menkul Kıymetler ve Borsa Komisyonu’nun İnternet İcra Dairesi eski şefi John Reed Stark, Binance müşterilerinin “paralarının nerede olduğunu bulmak için bir adli muhasebeciye ihtiyaç duymaması gerektiğini” söyledi.

Reuters, Binance müşteri paralarının kaybolduğuna veya alındığına dair hiçbir kanıt bulamadı.

SEC başkanı Gary Gensler, ABD müşterilerine menkul kıymetler sunan birçok kripto borsasının, kayıtlı broker-bayilerin müşteri parasını kurumsal varlıklardan ayırarak korumasını gerektiren yasalara uymadığını söyledi. Mayıs ayında bir etkinlikte, “İş modelleri, müşteri fonlarını alıp birleştirme üzerine kuruludur” dedi. SEC, bu yıl bir dizi kripto firmasına baskı başlattı, ancak herhangi bir doğrudan yaptırım eylemiyle Binance’i hedef almadı.

ABD Emtia Vadeli İşlemler Ticaret Komisyonu’nun Mart ayında borsaya karşı yaptığı bir şikayette, Binance’in Amerikalı müşterilerin erişimini Amerikalılara kısıtladığını açıkça iddia etmesine rağmen, 2019’dan bu yıla kadar ABD’li müşterilerin kendi platformunda işlem yapmasına izin verdiği iddia edildi. Binance, bir blogda ABD’li kullanıcıları engellediğini yanıtladı.

Reuters’e yaptığı açıklamada Binance, müşteri mevduatları ile şirket fonlarını karıştırmayı reddetti. “Bu hesaplar, kullanıcı mevduatlarını kabul etmek için kullanılmadı; sözcü Brad Jaffe, “kullanıcıların kripto para satın almalarını kolaylaştırmak için kullanıldı” dedi. “Hiçbir zaman karışma olmadı çünkü bunlar %100 kurumsal fonlar.” Kullanıcılar hesaba para gönderdiklerinde, para yatırmadıklarını, borsanın ısmarlama dolar bağlantılı kripto tokeni BUSD’yi satın aldıklarını söyledi. Jaffe, bu sürecin “Amazon’dan bir ürün satın almakla tamamen aynı şey” olduğunu söyledi.

Eski ABD düzenleyicileri Reuters’e, Binance’in açıklamasının, borsanın müşterilere transferlerin mevduat olduğuna dair önceki beyanları tarafından baltalandığını söyledi. 2020’nin sonlarından itibaren ve 2021 boyunca, Binance’in web sitesi müşterilere dolar transferlerinin, alım satım hesaplarına BUSD biçiminde “alındırılacak” “mevduat” olduğunu söyledi. Müşterilere mevduatlarını dolar olarak “çekebilecekleri” söylendi. Eski düzenleyiciler, bu temsillerin müşterilerin fonlarının geleneksel nakit mevduatlarla aynı şekilde korunacağı beklentisini yarattığını söyledi.

Eski SEC yetkilisi Stark, “Bu temsiller her zaman kristal netliğinde olmalıdır” dedi.

Reuters, Binance’e kullanıcılara dolar mevduatlarını “satın alma” olarak değerlendirdiğini söyleyip söylemediğini sordu. Binance buna dair herhangi bir kanıt sunmadı ve “‘depozito’ terimi bir iletişim terimidir, fonların teknik muamelesinin bir göstergesi değildir” dedi.

Müşteri ve kurumsal fonların birbirine karışması, finans firmalarının müşterileri için ağır kayıpların habercisi olabilir. Aralık ayında SEC ve CFTC, çöken kripto para borsası FTX’in kurucusu Sam Bankman-Fried’in yıllarca ticaret şirketindeki müşteri fonlarını birleştirdiğini ve paraları risk sermayesi yatırımlarını, siyasi bağışları ve emlak alımlarını finanse etmek için kullandığını iddia etti. Bankman-Fried, dolandırıcılık suçlamalarını reddetti ve bilerek herhangi bir parayı karıştırmadığını söyledi.

BINANCE’IN BANKASI

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.

ABD’nin kripto sektörüne yönelik baskısı hız kazanırken, hangi bankanın Binance’in operasyonlarının bir sonraki temel taşı olacağı belli değil. Zhao, Twitter’da yeni bankacılık ortakları aradığını söyledi. 27 Mart’ta “Bir kapı kapandığında diğerleri açılıyor” diye yazmıştı. Reuters, şu anda Binance’in baş bankacısı olarak kimin hareket ettiğini belirleyemedi.

GİRİŞLİ BİR WEB

Temmuz 2017’de Şanghay’da borsayı başlattıktan beş ay sonra Zhao, Asya’daki Tech haber kuruluşuna, müşterilerin yalnızca kripto para yatırdığı için Binance’in bankacılık ortağı olmadığını söyledi. Zhao, geleneksel para birimlerine atıfta bulunarak, “Fiat ile ne kadar çok uğraşırsanız, (yetkililer) sizi o kadar çok kontrol edebilir” dedi. Eski çalışanlar, kişisel kredi kartını şirket faturalarını ödemek için kullandığını söyledi.

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.

Doğrudan bilgiye sahip iki kişiye göre Silvergate, Binance’e Key Vision’ın hesabını 2021’in ortalarında kapatacağını bildirdi. Silvergate, Key Vision’ın bir saklama banka hesabı için uygun olmayan işlemler yaptığı temelinde karar verdi, kişilerden biri ayrıntıya girmeden söyledi. O Haziran ayında Binance, kullanıcılara e-posta göndererek Silvergate üzerinden “USD mevduatlarının” “durdurulacağını” bildirdi. Kullanıcı işlemlerinin kaynaklarına ve ekran görüntülerine göre, Binance daha sonra müşteri fonlarını almak için Signature Bank’ta bir Key Vision hesabı kullanmaya başladı. İmza Bankası bu yazı için yorum yapmadı.

Binance sözcüsü Jaffe, Key Vision hesaplarıyla ilgili bu raporun yanlış olduğunu söyledi ancak daha fazla ayrıntı vermedi.

BALTİK ÜSÜ

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.

Parlamento nihayetinde sulandırılmış bir dizi kuralla oy kullandı. Litvanya maliye bakanlığı Reuters’e, Bifinity’nin diğer kurumlar ve piyasa katılımcıları ile birlikte yasa taslağı hakkında resmi “yorum ve önerilerde bulunma” sürecine dahil olduğunu söyledi. “Düzenleyici politika kararlarımızı asla tek bir kuruluşa dayandırmıyoruz.”