Binance Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Changpeng Zhao ‘CZ’ has declared that he is not on The International Criminal Police Organization’s Red Notice list. Specifically, he claimed that the picture of him on Interpol’s red notice web page making rounds on Twitter was photoshopped. In addition, a spokesperson from the leading cryptocurrency exchange has confirmed that it was only a rumor.
“This rumor is not true,” the Binance spokesperson said. Later, Zhao added “If you panic sell on FUD or photoshopped images, well, you aren’t likely to become rich. Block the FUD sources.”
Interpol red notice is an order given to law enforcement agencies globally to find and arrest a person who is facing extradition or any legal action. After the so-called photoshopped image surfaced on Twitter, a SHA256 hash encryption message shared by a crypto influencer identified as Cobie also showed up to fuel the rumor. However, he later verified that it was only a prediction that graduated into a rumor.
Notably, the rumor has contributed to a dip in the market as well as a drop in the price of Binance’s BNB token.
Binance Gets Overwhelmed by Lawsuits
Before this rumor became public, Binance was already faced with several legal actions which resulted in a plunge in its operations.
Less than a week ago, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against Binance, CZ and another executive called Samuel Lim. The CEO was indicted for failing to disclose the locations of its executive offices. According to the regulator, this qualifies as an attempt to evade regulation.
Also, the lawsuit alleged that the crypto exchange was involved in the sales of unregistered commodity trading in the United States. The next few days following the lawsuit showed significant records of outflows reaching up to $2 billion. Binance USD (BUSD) worth about $500 million was pulled out of the protocol implying customers lack of trust and confidence in the exchange.
In February, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and New York financial regulator decided against Binance’s plan to acquire Voyager Digital’s assets. The regulator cited that Binance was already faced with money laundering issues and corruption charges.
