CZ also ran one of the shadiest operations in crypto. Binance had long refused to say where it was headquartered, making it tough for any country to claim jurisdiction. The U.S. investigations into Binance related to evading sanctions on Iran and Russia, trading unregistered securities, and violating money-laundering rules. Reuters called Binance “a hub for hackers, fraudsters and drug traffickers.” In 2018, Binance’s own chief compliance officer admitted bluntly in a message to a colleague, “we are operating as a fking unlicensed securities exchange in the USA bro.” Pig-butchering
