Sources close to the situation have revealed that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has entrusted the worldwide consulting firm Forensic Risk Alliance (FRA) with the responsibility of overseeing Binance’s compliance with regulatory mandates for the next three years.
Binance was required to appoint an independent entity to oversee the exchange’s compliance for the subsequent three years as part of its plea agreement in November 2023, when it pleaded guilty to various criminal offenses, including money laundering, and paid a fine of $4.3 billion. According to a Bloomberg story from May 10, the FRA will be able to examine the company’s internal records, facilities, and personnel in order to notify the DOJ of the company’s operations.
The DOJ apparently first considered appointing Sullivan & Cromwell to the contract but ultimately decided to go with FRA due to the firm’s history of representing the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Creditors said in a court document that S&C was aware of the failures, dishonest and fraudulent actions, and theft of money from Class Members by FTX US and FTX Trading Ltd.
Nevertheless, Sullivan & Cromwell is supposedly in the running to represent Binance in a separate five-year monitoring role for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Treasury Department.
The alleged appointment is happening just weeks after Binance’s previous CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, received his prison sentence. For failing to keep the cryptocurrency exchange’s Anti-Money Laundering program functional, Zhao received a four-month prison sentence on April 30.
Given the lack of evidence linking Zhao to certain unlawful conduct at Binance, Judge Jones reduced the prosecution’s original three-year prison term.