Binance Appoints New Compliance Officer as Regulatory Crackdown Intensifies

Binance has appointed Kristen Hecht as its new deputy chief compliance and global money laundering reporting officer, a new role to oversee both areas as the exchange grapples with potential fraud charges from U.S. regulators, the company announced Thursday. Several top legal and compliance executives have left the exchange in recent weeks, reportedly because of the strain of dealing with multiple investigations into its practices, although Binance denies this is the case.

Hecht is a familiar face at Binance, having previously served as the global head of corporate compliance at the exchange for the past eight months, after working as the chief compliance officer at Meta’s crypto wallet project, Novi Financial, for less than two years. Earlier in her career, Hecht was a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

In her new role, Hecht will primarily work on the company’s compliance program while also engaging with regulators, intergovernmental organizations and industry bodies, according to a press release. She will be working closely with Noah Perlman, who is replacing Hecht as Chief Compliance Officer.

The appointment comes as Binance continues to be at the forefront of U.S. lawmakers’ crackdown on crypto actors. In March, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued Binance and Zhao on allegations the company knowingly offered unregistered crypto derivatives products in the U.S. against federal law.

Later in June, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) followed suit and sued the exchange on allegations of violating federal securities laws.

It was revealed on Wednesday that U.S. Department of Justice officials are even considering fraud charges against Binance, but could resort to fines and deferred or non-prosecution to avoid threatening the entire crypto industry and creating a bank run, people familiar with the matter said.