Binance's Secret Plot: Leaked Texts Reveal Plans to Evade U.S. Law Enforcement – What's Going On?

cryptonews.com:

Binance and its US-based counterpart, Binance.US, which were presented as distinct entities, are said to have been more closely connected than what was previously revealed, purportedly entangling personnel, technical teams, and finances.

According to a report published by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), internal documents and employee messages reveal that Binance and Binance.US, despite their assertion of being completely separate entities, had shared personnel and finances, and a related organization that engaged in buying and selling of cryptocurrencies.

The report further claimed that Binance created its US platform as a shield from regulators. The move allegedly came after US authorities signaled a coming crackdown on unregulated offshore crypto players while a fifth of Binance's customers were in the US.

"Worried about the threat of prosecution, Binance set out on a plan to neutralize U.S. authorities," the report said. "The strategy centered on building a bare-bones American platform, Binance.US, that would license Binance’s technology and brand but otherwise appear to be wholly independent of Binance.com."

The report also shared texts between employees of the two companies from 2019 that illustrate their close involvement. For instance, in September 2019, when a Binance staffer in Shanghai turned on trading for the U.S. platform a few minutes before it was meant to launch, it led to an exchange in a Binance chat group on the messaging app Telegram:

Ninj0r [a Binance software developer]: "Why did trading start???? It’s not time yet!!! Who started trading? We had the trading timers set? Who started trading?"

Other messages followed, including another urgent one from Ninj0r: "someone started TRADING EARLY. Who did it? At