Case Overview
Plaintiffs filed this class action lawsuit in federal court in the Western District of Washington on August 16, 2024, seeking declaratory, injunctive, and other relief under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1962, for themselves and a class of individuals to be certified by the Court.
Plaintiffs allege that Binance Holdings, Ltd. (Binance) and Bam Trading Services Inc. (Binance.US), under the control of Changpeng Zhao (Zhao), were aware that hackers, fraudsters, and other bad actors were using Binance.com to launder cryptocurrency which had been stolen from Plaintiffs and others, and that Binance, Binance.US and Zhao permitted that laundering as part of a conspiracy to gain market share and generate large revenues for Binance.
To achieve these goals, Plaintiffs allege that Binance and Zhao set up and managed the Binance Platform, including Binance.com and Binance.US, in a manner that willfully violated U.S. laws and regulations meant to prevent the theft and laundering of cryptocurrency. This willful violation allowed bad actors and sanctioned entities to create accounts, deposit and withdraw cryptocurrency, and exchange cryptocurrency with anonymity. That anonymity provided a haven for criminals to transform stolen cryptocurrency into untraceable assets. Through their conspiracy and fraudulent scheme, Defendants generated massive amounts of fees on the transactions that consisted of cryptocurrency stolen from Plaintiffs and others.
Defendants have not yet answered Plaintiffs’ claims.
You may review the Class Action Complaint in the Case Documents section below.
