Crypto exchange Binance transferred user data to Russian special services

As part of the fight against money laundering, Binance transferred the personal data of cryptocurrency donors to the structures of the Navalny.

Reuters has released a special report on Binance’s behind-the-scenes negotiations with Russian special services.

Since April 2021, Binance has transferred the personal data of crypto wallet holders to Rosfinmonitoring.

Rosfinmonitoring tried to track donations in bitcoins that the foundation of Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny collected to finance efforts to expose corruption in the government of Vladimir Putin.

The head of Binance for Eastern Europe and Russia, Gleb Kostarev, agreed to the request of Rosfinmonitoring to provide consent to the exchange of customer data. He said he didn’t have a ‘lot of choice’ on the matter.

Kostarev did not comment to Reuters on the matter.

Binance’s press office told Reuters that Russian authorities had never contacted it about the Navalny. Before the war with Ukraine, Rosfinmonitoring actively sought compliance with Russian laws and demanded responses to requests from regulatory and law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation.

Recall that Binance occupies 4/5 of the cryptocurrency trading market in the Russian segment of this industry.