BJ Kang, a former FBI Special Agent, has been assigned to Binance US. He will lead a new investigative unit that is responsible for stopping and detecting illegal activities in the crypto market. United States crypto exchange Binance US created an “investigations Unit” and appointed a former FBI Special Agent as its head. The unit’s goal is to find and stop illegal activity on the platform.
Cointelegraph confirmed that the “investigations” unit is a new unit within the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange. Krishna Juvvadi (head of legal), said that the unit has seen BJ Kang, a former FBI agent, become the first “head of investigation.
Kang will partner with regulators, law enforcement and other exchanges to stop and seek out illegal activity on the platform. Kang will also create an “investigations infrastructure” for Binance US.
Binance US stated in an Oct. 20 statement that it had strengthened its legal and compliance risk operations by increasing its department headcount to 145% and committing over one-fifth of its total workforce to these functions.
Kang is well-known for his high-profile investigations of securities fraud during his almost 20-year tenure at the FBI.
After being photographed with Bernie Madoff, a former FBI agent, and Raj Rajaratnam (a former manager of a hedge fund), the former FBI agent was dubbed “the most feared man in Wall Street” by Reuters.
He was previously a member of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Cybercrime Squad, investigating cyber-enabled money laundering and extortion.
Kang’s appointment comes at a time when the exchange is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Commission reportedly sought information about two companies that were allegedly market makers on the platform. It is now investigating whether Binance US might have revealed its possible links to these companies to users.
Binance operates independently from the US arm and has had to defend itself against two Reuters exposes in the last year. These exposes accused Binance of processing at most $2.35 Billion worth of transactions involving hacks, investment frauds, and narcotics sales, between 2017 and 2021.
On Oct. 17, claimed that the platform had “swept scrutiny” from regulators in the U.S.A and United Kingdom. They cited two separate proposals, submitted either by employees or affiliates.
The U.K allegation was based on the proposal that Binance backdate its service agreements in order to obtain a financial registration exemption. In the U.S., a proposal was made to direct authorities’ attention towards a U.S. entity and not Binance.
