Brazilian Parliament to study Binance ties to financial pyramids

The Parliamentary Commission to Investigate Financial Pyramids of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies will vote on a summons for the head of Binance’s local unit to testify. Portal Do Bitcoin reports.

The corresponding request was filed by Deputy Alfredo Gaspar. The regional manager of the Bitcoin exchange in the country is Guilherme Haddad Nazar — the nephew of the current Minister of Finance Fernando Haddad.

According to the deputy, the Ever Operations and Investments and Braiscompany pyramids used a crypto-trading platform to move their assets. The legislator noted that Binance faces regulatory problems in USA, Japan, China, Germany, the United Kingdom and Brazil.

“Therefore, one can conclude that Binance is closely intertwined with the remit of our commission, and it is important to understand the exchange’s operations in the country, its relationship with B Fintech, and its ties to companies brought to court for harm to Brazilian consumers,” Gaspar said.

Binance said it expects to be summoned along with all crypto trading platforms connected with the parliamentary commission’s inquiry.

“Given that scammers operate on multiple exchanges at once, Binance has been most helpful to authorities in investigations and in returning funds to victims,” the paper quotes the company’s statement.

The exchange says it assisted the police in the case against founder GAS Consultoria Gladson Acacio dos Santos. He was arrested in August 2021 during Operation Kryptos.

“Another example is Braiscompany. Although federal prosecutors named several exchanges involved in the scheme, Binance was the only one whose assistance to authorities in the investigative work was officially acknowledged,”

Reuters reports that from 2017 to 2021, criminals laundered through Binance $2.35 billion of funds obtained illegally.