Federal judge Zia Faruqui did not grant the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) request to access the software of Binance.US, Binance’s US arm.
As CriptoFácil reported, on Monday (18), the American regulator asked the court for access to the exchange system, citing an “urgent need for inspection”. It also requested that the court force the company to share other information requested as part of its ongoing lawsuit against the exchange.
In the court filing, the agency said that Binance.US did not provide the requested documents. Additionally, it alleged concerns about Binance’s use of the Ceffu custody platform. According to the regulator, Ceffu may also be serving Binance.US as a way to send US customer funds outside the country, in violation of the agreement reached between the parties.
However, the judge did not grant the SEC’s request. He said he was “not inclined to allow the inspection at this time,” according to Bloomberg. Furthermore, Faruqui accused the agency of carrying out a “fishing expedition” and issuing broad requests for information regarding the case in question. Therefore, the judge said the SEC should present more personalized requests and speak to additional witnesses.
The development is another chapter in the “SEC x Binance” case that began about three months ago. In June, the SEC sued Binance.US, its parent company Binance Holdings, and the company’s founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) on charges of unlicensed operations, among other allegations.
Caso SEC x Binance
The SEC’s request to inspect Binance.US’ software was intended to understand the role Ceffu had been playing within the Binance ecosystem.
Ceffu, however, says it is a “completely independent third-party technology services provider”. Therefore, it is not part of Binance.
The SEC also accused Binance.US of providing “inconsistent representations about material facts.” Furthermore, it stated that the company granted access to documents and information slowly and obstructed entire categories of information that “would likely shed light on its shaky claims about the custody of client assets.”
Matthew Martens, an attorney representing Binance.US, stated at the hearing that the company responded to all of the SEC’s “targeted requests.”
“What we are not going to respond to is the foolishness of the document requests that came from the government here,” he said.
Source: https://www.criptofacil.com/juiz-nega-pedido-da-sec-para-acessar-software-da-binance-us/
