World’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been thrown out of court over an online crypto “pig cutting” scam that took place on dating app Tinder.
On May 22, a U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant said that there is no evidence that Binance Holdings Ltd. aided and abetted the robbery – which involved a Texas woman who was allegedly defrauded of $8million by a man she met on Tinder.
According to the filing, a Texas woman, Divya Gadasalli, was “promised love and financial success” by a man named “Jerry Bulasa” on Tinder, but ended up with more than $8 million. Gadasalli said Bulasa convinced him to transfer millions of dollars in what turned out to be part of a scheme known as “pig killing” – in which the fraudster spends weeks or months establishing a false relationship with the victim. to trick him into sending him money.
In March 2022, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit against Binance and several other defendants, including TD Bank, Abacus Federal Savings Bank, and the Poloniex exchange, seeking an injunction. Gadasalli initially says that Binance was involved because it was providing an exchange service to scammers.
He argued that Binance and Binance.US are the same and people use VPNs (virtual private networks) to access the exchange. However, Judge Mazzant ruled that the plaintiff “cannot explain a single fact about how Binance is really involved in this” and cannot show how the court has jurisdiction over the company.
The judge added that Gadasalli could not prove that no such fraud took place in Texas since Binance and Binance.US were not allowed to operate there. The result is a small win for Binance which is still at the mercy of the US financial authorities and the court.
In late March, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao for trading violations, trading and other violations. In addition, CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam said that the exchange leaders were knowingly operating outside of US commodity laws.
The Australian branch of Binance AU recently announced that it will stop withdrawing AUD from deposits via wire transfer due to the decision of third party payment provider Cuscal. In a separate speech the same day, Cuscal cited the impact of “scams and fraud” related to “account fraud, identity theft, and crypto services.” He did not refer to Binance in his statement.
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