Report: Binance.US Executives Exit Amid SEC Lawsuit

Binance.US, the American arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, is reportedly dealing with the departure of key legal and risk executives.

Krishna Juvvadi, head of legal, and Sidney Majalya, chief risk officer, are leaving Binance.US, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Thursday (Sept. 14), citing unnamed sources.

Binance.US did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

Their departures follow that of CEO Brian Shroder, whose resignation was reported Tuesday (Sept. 12).

They come at a time when Binance.US is being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Juvvadi was among those responsible for communicating with the SEC, according to the WSJ report.

Shroder will be succeeded as CEO by Norman Reed, the firm’s general counsel.

It was reported Tuesday that Binance.US is also laying off more than 100 workers, or roughly a third of its staff. The firm had already laid off another 50 employees in June, less than two weeks after the SEC accused parent company Binance of securities law violations and tried to freeze Binance.US’s assets.

Speaking of the latest layoffs, a company spokesperson told PYMNTS on Tuesday: “The actions we are taking today provide Binance.US with more than seven years of financial runway and enable us to continue to serve our customers while we operate as a crypto-only exchange.”

The SEC filed its lawsuit against Binance, its founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, and Binance.US on June 5, alleging that the company had artificially inflated its trading volumes, diverted customer funds, failed to restrict U.S. customers from its platform, and misled investors about its market surveillance controls.

In a June 9 blog post, Binance.US called the SEC’s actions “extremely aggressive” and said that, in an attempt to protect itself, it would no longer accept U.S. dollar deposits and would restrict customers from withdrawing dollars from the exchange. The company added that crypto-denominated trading, deposits, withdrawals and staking would remain fully operational.

More recently, on Aug. 22, Binance.US said it has teamed up with payment startup MoonPay to provide an alternative way for the exchange’s users to convert dollars to cryptocurrency. MoonPay will allow Binance.US customers to use their debit or credit cards, Apple Pay or Google Pay to buy Tethers, a stablecoin, and use that to purchase other crypto tokens available on the platform.