tl;dr
Former Binance employee, Amrita Srivastava, has filed a whistleblower lawsuit in the UK, accusing a colleague of soliciting a bribe from a customer for preferential treatment. She claims to have been wrongfully terminated after reporting the misconduct. Binance faces legal troubles as Srivastava sue...
Former Binance employee, Amrita Srivastava, has filed a whistleblower lawsuit in the UK, accusing a colleague of soliciting a bribe from a customer for preferential treatment. She claims to have been wrongfully terminated after reporting the misconduct. Binance faces legal troubles as Srivastava sues the company for alleged retaliation.
The exchange's legal team argues her dismissal was due to poor performance, and points to a broader practice of addressing underperformance. This adds to Binance's ongoing legal challenges, including recent guilty pleas and a record $4.3 billion penalty for violating US anti-money laundering laws, as well as lawsuits against its former CEO and the exchange itself.
According to Bloomberg reports, these allegations came forward during an employment tribunal earlier this week. Srivastava said the colleague accepted payment under the guise of providing consulting services. The employee would secretly take bribes to register new customers into the exchange. She further alleged that the individual concealed their affiliation with Binance and has since left the company. Although Srivastava reported the bribery to her managers in April 2023, she was dismissed the following month.
Now, she is suing Binance Europe Ltd. for what allegedly was retaliation for raising concerns about the incident. The exchange also faced similar allegations from another employee earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Binance’s legal team argued that the company was already aware of the bribery claim. However, they maintained that Srivastava’s dismissal was due to poor performance. The legal team pointed to a broader company practice of addressing underperformance among employees. This tribunal hearing another tale in Binance’s long list of legal troubles.
Back in November 2023, the exchange pled guilty to violating US anti-money laundering. This led to a record $4.3 billion penalty and the resignation of Changpeng Zhao (CZ) as the company’s CEO. At the same time, CZ and Binance are facing a separate lawsuit from bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. According to the lawsuit filed earlier this month, Sam Bankman-Fried fraudulently transferred a part of $1.8 billion in assets to both CZ and his exchange. Most recently, CZ served a four-month prison sentence for violating US money laundering laws. He was released back in September but continues to face multiple other lawsuits.
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