Thai SEC Files Criminal Complaint against Binance for Illegally Offering Services

Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Friday that it has filed a criminal complaint against Binance for illegally offering services in the country. 

“Following tips and the SEC’s further inspection, it was found that Binance has provided platform services for trading or exchanging digital assets via its website by matching orders or arranging for the counterparties or providing the system or facilitating entry into an agreement or match the order for persons who wish to trade or exchange digital assets,” SEC said.

Binance has offered it cryptocurrency exchange business to Thailand investors without the license. The SEC sent Binance a warning letter on April 5 and asked it to submit a written response, but it failed to answer it during a specified time. 

Thailand's SEC has filed a criminal complaint against Binance with the Economic Crime Suppression Division of the Royal Thai Police, which will decide on further investigation and legal proceedings.

Binance has violated Thailand's crypto laws defined under the Digital Asset Businesses Emergency Decree. Thus, the exchange operator generally attract jail terms  between two to five years and a fine of 200,000 to 500,000 baht (around $6,000 to $15,500), and a further daily penalty not exceeding 10,000 baht ($310) for every day during which the contravention continues.

 "As you can understand, we do not comment, as a matter of policy, on specific matters related to any regulators. What we can say is that we take a collaborative approach in working with regulators and we take our compliance obligations very seriously. We are actively keeping abreast of changing policies, rules and laws in this new space. We will certainly let you know if and when we have other updates."A spokesperson for Binance said.