Yahya 
Three Bitcoin investors are suing Binance and Changpeng Zhao (CZ) claiming they cannot get their pilfers back as the exchange’s incapacity to avoid money laundering stopped recovery.
Filed August 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Seattle, the lawsuit alleges that the hacked compromised crypto assets were transferred to Binance by the hackers to conceal their source, therefore making the currency untraceable. Given the inherent nature of blockchain transactions, wherein every transaction is permanently recorded absent the claimed laundering activities permitted by Binance, the plaintiffs argue that tracing the stolen money should have been simple.
The complaint claims that Binance participated actively in the money laundering operation—which the plaintiffs say violates the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The lawsuit claims that illegal actors using absent platforms like Binance face the risk of being found by authorities applying blockchain monitoring.
Senior Consensys attorney Bill Hughes accepted the potential impact the case would have on the bitcoin market but expressed uncertainty on whether it had validity to support these assertions. In an August 20 post on X, Hughes claimed the case is a “natural, predictable follow-on civil action” that may put Binance in a difficult situation, especially should the issue wind the courts.
Should the case continue on, he said, the efficacy of blockchain analytics and on-chain asset recovery may come under careful examination, thereby maybe producing significant industry precedents.
This lawsuit worsens Binance’s legal problems after CZ’s November 2023 guilty plea for violating U.S. money laundering laws. As part of a settlement, Binance agreed to pay fines totaling $4.3 billion; CZ resigned from his post as CEO and then served four months in prison. Approved additionally to proceed in court, the SEC sued Binance in June 2023 for using dishonest practices and market manipulation.
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