US authorities again seek to block Binance.US–Voyager Digital deal

The proposed Binance.US deal to buy assets currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings for Voyager Digital should be halted. This was stated by Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Authorities fear that the agreement between the companies would effectively rehabilitate Voyager and its employees after breaches of the Securities Act.

“Nothing in the Bankruptcy Code permits courts to relieve parties of accountability to the state for past and future actions,” the prosecutor explained.

Williams’s statement followed an appeal by the U.S. Department of Justice in the same case.

In the prosecutor’s view, the asset purchase process should be frozen until all legal objections have been reviewed and resolved.

In December 2022, Binance.US offered the highest price for Voyager’s assets — $1.02 billion.

However, regulators, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the New York State Department of Financial Services, opposed the deal.

During the hearings in the case, the SEC representatives stated that the U.S. unit of Binance operates an unregistered securities exchange.

In March 2023, Lookonchain analysts recorded a liquidation of Voyager assets totaling about $56 million.