Current US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Secretary Gary Gensler applied for a job at Binance in 2019.
The SEC drama against crypto trading does not seem to be heading toward a calm situation. Recently, the defendants chose to let the cat out of the bag and recall that Gensler applied for a job at Binance in 2019.
According to the company’s lawyers, the then Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor approached the crypto firm. However, there is still no precision as to who approached whom to seek services.
A recent work by the WSJ points out that it was just the opposite. Either way, the relationship between Gensler and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao appears to be on a remarkable trajectory. The latter could be the explanation for the viciousness of the current SEC lawsuit against the cryptocurrency trading platform.
Both people (Gensler and CZ) met repeatedly to talk about the future of the company in the United States. In other words, Gensler did not consider the crypto firm to represent a problem, as he now does at the helm of the agency.
Gensler and Binance, A Toxic Relationship
Whether Gensler applied for a job at Binance, or the opposite, seems unimportant at this point. What matters is that the current secretary of the SEC had a relationship with the exchange of previous data. If things ended badly, it is possible that the agency’s current viciousness against the platform has overtones of revenge.
Although the latter is an assumption, it cannot be ruled out. In any case, the crypto company’s lawyers say that in 2019 Gensler asked to be part of the project as an “informal advisor.”
So close is the relationship between the two, say the lawyers that Gensler was scheduled to testify before the US House Committee on Financial Services in 2019. Before appearing at the hearing, he sent Zhao a copy of his testimony seeking approval from the businessman.
Similarly, CZ was invited to attend a course on cryptocurrencies presented by Gensler at MIT. In the SEC’s lawsuit against the exchange and against CZ, the agency describes the executive, who resides in Dubai, as a “foreign national” with a tendency to “geographical evasiveness.” Meanwhile, he company dismisses the SEC director as someone who feels “comfortable with the role of informal adviser.”
Given the relationship both people have had, the lawyers requested that there be a recusal of any action related to the company.
The Other Side of the Story
There is an opposing narrative according to which Gensler did not apply for a job with Binance, but that it would have been the company that approached the then MIT professor to pave the way to the US market.
It is worth mentioning that in 2018, an internal Binance chat says that they should approach the professor since, in the 2020 elections, if the Democrats win, he would return to the field of regulators.
The same outlet cites a source close to the SEC, which, if honest, would show that Gensler did not apply for a position at Binance.
By Audy Castaneda
