Media: Binance Attempted to Hire Gary Gensler in 2018

In 2018, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance attempted to hire Gary Gensler as an advisor before he became chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Wall Street Journal reports this.

According to the investigation, the platform approached Gensler with a job offer twice while he taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After he declined, Binance’s head of the venture investment division, Ella Zhang, wrote in the work chat:

«I noticed that, although Gensler rejected our offer, he was readily sharing licensing strategies».

became chairman of the SEC in 2021. According to media reports, several other private companies approached him with job offers.

The publication also found documents that explain the nature of the relationship between Binance and its American subsidiary. Fearing scrutiny by regulators, the exchange’s executives took steps to mitigate such risks and created a company in the United States, WSJ reports.

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Binance representatives noted that the two companies «have the same ultimate beneficial owner».

«We acknowledge that in the early years we did not have proper controls. Today we are a very different company when it comes to regulatory compliance. […] Binance.US was created specifically to provide US customers with products and services that meet local rules», the platform’s representatives added.

Earlier in March, U.S. senators named Binance ‘a hotbed of illicit financial activity’. They demanded that the exchange provide detailed information on its Know Your Customer/anti-money laundering policies and anti-money-laundering controls.