In Brief:
- Binance hires former IRS agent Tigran Gambaryan as a vice president of its intelligence division.
- The move is intended to enhance compliance and auditing measures
- In 2013, Gamaryan had solved the “Silk Road” case.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance has appointed a former the United States Internal Revenue Service agent to lead its intelligence division. The reason behind this hiring is to enhance compliance and to build trust with users and regulators across the globe.
Binance hired Tigran Gambaryan as vice president of global intelligence and investigations. Before this, Tigran Gambaryan was working at the IRS as a special agent, since 2011. At there he was handling cases related to national security, terrorism financing, tax evasion, and identity theft.
In 2013, he made a big achievement in solving the Silk Road case. Silk Road was the dark web marketplace that was initiated by Ross Ulbricht. This marketplace was involved in illicit activities such as narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and computer hacking. On 6 November 2013, Ross Ulbricht, who used the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts” was caught by the FBI, and ultimately this first darknet platform went down.
In Binance, Gambryn will conduct the internal and external investigation by closely working with the government agencies and regulators “to prevent threats and financial losses”. Also, the audit and investigations team of Binance will work jointly with law enforcement agencies and regulators.
The move shows that Binance wants to improve its reputation by taking compliance measures to protect its crypto services from regulatory scrutiny across the globe.
The exchange has been forced to discontinue operations and trading services such as crypto trading in several countries, including Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Canadian province of Ontario. According to regulators, Binance has been failing to comply with local licensing laws.
Recently, Binance had to stop fiat deposits and spot crypto trading services in Singapore to comply with local regulations. In addition, the exchange has also ceased crypto futures and option trading services in Australia.
