Binance, along with its CEO Changpeng Zhao and compliance officer Samuel Lim, will seek to dismiss charges brought by the U.S. Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
In a July 24 court filing in an Illinois District Court, Zhao, Lim and multiple Binance entities stated their intent to file a joint motion to dismiss the complaint. Lim will join parts of the motion to dismiss the complaint filed by Zhao and Binance’s foreign entities and file his own separate motion to dismiss the charges.
Binance’s lawyers also sought permission to exceed a 15-page limit on the brief which it would use to support the motion, citing the “complexity” of the CFTC’s 73-page complaint and the number of arguments made against the defendants.
In March, the CFTC sued Binance, Zhao and Lim for allegedly violating trading and derivatives regulations. The CFTC also claimed that Lim, under Zhao’s direction, instructed employees to advise U.S. customers on ways to bypass controls that restricted them from trading on Binance’s platform.
“On the surface we cannot be seen to have US users but in reality we should get them through other creative means,” Lim allegedly wrote in an internal employee chat log obtained by the CFTC.
Binance’s response to the CFTC’s complaint is due on July 27, but the exchange also faces charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is reportedly under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as well.
