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The most shocking part of this story is the number of former US officials who are now working for Binance to try to protect them from prosecution. While this mi
by TSiege 4y ago
The most shocking part of this story is the number of former US officials who are now working for Binance to try to protect them from prosecution. While this might be technically legal and part of what goes on in Washington, it's a sign of severe moral decay amongst our government and is a striking example of normalized corruption
> [Zhao] instigated a recruitment spree last year that led to the hiring of officials from the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation division, the U.S. government agency that was investigating Binance
> [...] A recruitment program by Binance among law enforcement officials in the United States, offering salaries that far exceeded what was available at many other finance and crypto firms, according to four people familiar with the outreach
> Binance has hired a former chief of MLARS [Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section], Kendall Day, a partner at Gibson Dunn, to engage in discussions with the Justice Department.
> [Binance] hired at least five ex-officials from the IRS Criminal Investigation's Cyber Crime Unit, including a new global head of investigations called Tigran Gambaryan
> Faced with the Justice Department investigation, Binance hired an external lawyer from U.S. law firm Paul Weiss, Roberto Gonzalez, who was previously Treasury's deputy general counsel.
- mattbrewsbytes 4y ago> The most shocking part of this story is the number of former US officials who are now working for Binance You realize this is how the SEC and various regulatory entities end up working? I wouldn't say its shocking. The people are commonly on one side (regulation) or the other (private sector) without any type of "layover" or time out in between. I think FTX was attempting to hire someone from the CFTC (regulatory body over crypto) as part of their team. I would love politicians to write up an Anti-Corruption Act with some sensible rules around these types of things to at least put some distance between jobs and counter balances around corruption/collusion. Penalties should be in the range of can't work in that industry anymore to federal prison time. The other idea I'd like to see traction on is implementing term limits in Congress. I don't have a lot of hope that either will happen in my lifetime.
- acdha 4y agoOne big challenge is that there’s so much political rancor around the “overpaid civil servant” trope. We’d be much better off if e.g. SEC lawyers were paid enough to be hotly-contested jobs with a 10 year sinecure plus a non-compete, but that would involve paying them enough that there’d be constant claims of inefficiency.
- TSiege 4y agoShocked, but not surprised
- SanjayMehta 4y agoIt's the same in most industries. There's an article from last year which documents the revolving doors between pharma and FDA/NIH. On that note, it will be interesting to see where Fauci goes for "the next stage of his career" at 80.
- raincom 4y agoThere is a name for it: revolving door. This how legally permitted corruption reproduces itself in the USA. There is a prosecutorial discretion. Except for prosecuting mafias (RICO is useful), it is very hard to prove collective culpability in any large company--that's why many executives are off the hook. What appears to be unethical to the public (revolving door) is legally permitted. Basically, it is a collusion between DOJ/SEC/IRS employees, and ex-DOJ/SEC/IRS employees