WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department should investigate whether cryptocurrency exchange Binance made false claims to Congress in a written response to lawmakers this year, two Democratic U.S. senators said in a published letter. THURSDAY.
“This is serious business,” Senator Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen wrote in a letter to the Justice Department, saying a bipartisan group of lawmakers in March were seeking information from industry as they were evaluating potential new laws.
“It appears that Binance and Binance.US have undermined this important investigation and the legislative process by providing false and misleading information to Congress” in their response to the request for information, the senators said, adding, “The department should, in conjunction with the SEC’s ongoing complaint process, conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of this matter.”
This week, US financial regulators cracked down on the crypto industry by taking legal action against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and cryptocurrency platform Coinbase.
Binance representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter. Representatives of the Ministry of Justice could not immediately be reached.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Manya Saini; editing by David Goodman and Jason Neely)