… while holding a training session for El Salvador law enforcement authorities on best money laundering investigative practices.

The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) announced on 9 May administrative monetary penalties against the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance Holding Ltd. for violating anti-money-laundering regulations.

The regulator cited two violations: Failure to register with the Centre – Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, and Failure to report a large virtual currency transaction of $10,000 or more in the course of a single transaction, together with the prescribed information.

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FINTRAC therefore fined Binance more than 6 million CAD – the equivalent of $4.4 million.

On the first violation, “Binance Holdings Limited was provided with several opportunities to register with FINTRAC as a foreign money services business (FMSB), however, they had not completed their registration by the deadlines provided,” the regulator said in a press release.

As for the second offense, using blockchain analytics, FINTRAC identified that Binance failed to report the receipt from a client, of an amount in virtual currency of $10,000 or more in the course of a single transaction, together with the prescribed information that occurred on 5,902 separate occasions during the period of 1 June 2021 until 19 July 2023.

Binance has not issued any comment yet on the FINTRAC decision.

The irony is that the company recently hosted a tailored training session for El Salvador law enforcement including representatives from the Financial Investigation Unit, National Digital Assets Commission, and Office of the Attorney General, offering insight into its tools and support mechanisms for local crime investigations.

The training session was led by René Guzmán, Binance’s compliance and money laundering reporting officer for this Latin American country, and Daniel Camp, a member of Binance’s investigation team.

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