The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed an emergency petition in Washington Federal Court to freeze Binance US assets and recover assets (fiat and cryptocurrency) held by clients on the US Binance exchange, CNBC reported.
The request to freeze applies to the two holding companies of Binance in America, and not to the unregulated international exchange in America.
According to the SEC, the restraining order against Binance was necessary to prevent the squandering of available assets upon issuance of any judgments, given years of violations and disregard for US laws on the part of the defendant.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed 13 charges against cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao last Monday.
The accusations allege that the largest cryptocurrency exchange mixed billions of dollars of user funds and sent them to a European company controlled by Zhao.
The SEC alleged that two foreign entities controlled by Zhao, Sigma Chain and Merit Peak, acted as conduits for billions of dollars in customer funds that were improperly mixed with Binance funds.