Binance began kicking U.S. customers off its platform in November—even though it had closed its platform to Americans on June 14, 2019—after setting up the independent exchange Binance.US in the country. At the time, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said Binance.US would “bring the security, speed, and liquidity of Binance.com to North America,” in full regulatory compliance with all U.S. laws.
The Seychelles-based exchange has been under severe pressure since the Oct. 1 indictment, when the four executives were charged with violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to put an acceptable user identity verification program in place.
Crypto-powered data storage platform Oyster Protocol was an exit scam that brought founder Amir Bruno Elmaani—also known as Bruno Block—a lavish lifestyle featuring several yachts, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Höptner led Börse Stuttgart as the firm started offering regulated cryptocurrency trading services inside the European Union, from Germany. The company said it was the European Union's first traditional exchange operator to become a regulated crypto multilateral trading facility.
