Binance, the world’s largest crypto trading platform, reached out to current United States Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC) chairman Gary Gensler, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) alleged in a report, citing documents, messages, and interviews.
The report also added statements from former employees of the firm. In it, the WSJ alleges that Binance approached Gensler from 2018 to 2019.
At the time, he served as the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The report referenced messages that former Head of Binance Ventures Ella Zhang and Koi Trading co-founder Harry Zhou had contacted Gensler in 2018.
According to the message as quoted by the WSJ, Zhou wrote, “I observe that while Gensler declined advisor-ship, he was generous in sharing license strategies.”
A further Binance worker allegedly wrote: “[Gensler would] likely back in a regulators seat if Dems win the 2020 election.”
The WSJ also alleges Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Gensler met in Tokyo in 2019, just two years before the latter became chairman of the SEC. Numerous private firms also reportedly approached Gensler, who turned down the offers.
It added Binance and Binance.us, the firm’s US division, aimed to avoid regulations with the latter entity setting up to protect Binance from US regulators.
The news comes as Binance faces regulatory scrutiny from the SEC, FTC, and other US agencies for its Paxos-minted Binance USD (BUSD) token. Regulators allege Binance sold the token as an unregistered security, triggering over $831 million USD in outflows from the exchange.
