Judge Denies SEC’s Request to Access to Binance.US’ Software

A federal magistrate judge asked the SEC to narrow its request for information, denying a motion for the securities regulator to inspect Binance.US’ software.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was denied a request to access Binance.US’ software and its demands to depose more executives at the crypto exchange. 

According to a Monday report from Bloomberg, federal Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said he  wasn’t “inclined to allow the inspection at this time,” asking the SEC to tailor its requests for additional information, in a court hearing.

In a court document filed earlier in the day, the SEC claimed that Binance.US had produced fewer than 250 documents and offered just three witnesses to be deposed by the regulator.

While lawyers for Binance.US have called the regulator’s requests overly broad, and a “fishing expedition,” the SEC claims that the firm’s opposition only illustrates the “house of mirrors the SEC has been navigating for months.” 

In particular, the SEC wants to examine Binance.US’ relationship with custody platform Ceffu, which was formely known as Binance Custody. The regulator believes that the platform may have been used to move U.S. customer funds out of the country.

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The SEC calls out that this violates the consent decree that required new wallets expressly away from Binance International control/access, but interesting specifically notes this is important as Binance has “controlled” BAM for it’s “own unlawful purposes” pic.twitter.com/nPjPNni2Px

— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) September 18, 2023

Judge Faruqui conceded that the global Binance entity should share more information about the nature of its relationship with Ceffu, but was reluctant to issue an order for the crypto exchange to produce documents. 

“I need you all to try to turn down the temperature and forget the past and try to give me some of what you think you can figure out,” said Faruqui.

“At some point we are going to have to bite the bullet and move on with the case.”