International cryptocurrency exchange Banking records and company messages show that Binance had secret access to a bank account belonging to its ostensibly independent US partner and transferred large sums of money from the account to a trading firm managed by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
According to records reviewed by Reuters for the first three months of 2021, more than $400 million flowed from the Binance.US account at California-based Silvergate Bank to this trading firm, Merit Peak Ltd. According to the records, the Binance.US account was opened in the name of BAM Trading, the operating company of the US exchange. According to company messages, the transfers to Merit Peak began in late 2020.