Financial watchdog, the SEC sued crypto exchange Binance and its billionaire founder, Changpeng Zhao

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed 13 charges against Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, alleging that they worked to attract U.S. customers to its unregulated international exchange, commingled investor funds with their own, and violated securities laws.

According to Reuters, From almost three years ago until June 2022, a trading firm owned and controlled by Zhao, Sigma Chain, engaged in so-called wash trading that artificially inflated the trading volume of crypto asset securities on the Binance.US platform, the SEC also alleged.

Sigma Chain spent $11 million from an account on a yacht, the SEC said, "We allege that Zhao and Binance entities engaged in an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure, and calculated evasion of the law," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement.

In a blog post, Binance said: "We intend to defend our platform vigorously," adding that "because Binance is not a U.S. exchange, the SEC's actions are limited in reach." Showing its clear disappointment the platform further said, "All user assets on Binance and Binance affiliate platforms, including Binance.US, are safe and secure."

In a statement, Binance said it had "actively cooperated" with the SEC "from the start" and "respectfully disagree" with the SEC's allegations. Binance had been trying to find a "reasonable resolution" with the SEC but the agency "at the eleventh hour" issued new requests and went to court. Binance said the SEC's actions appeared to be an effort to "claim jurisdictional ground from other regulators."

Binance.US, which is ultimately controlled by Zhao, said in a tweet that the lawsuit was "unjustified by the facts, by the law, or by the Commission's precedent."