 in two separate criminal cases. The message here should be clear. Using new technology to break the law does not make you a disrupter. It makes you a criminal. Fist Justice Department has no tolerance for crimes that threaten our economic institutions and undermine public trust in the fairness of those institutions. And we will hold accountable the individuals who commit and profit from them. I'm now pleased to turn the podium over to Secretary Yellen. Good afternoon. I'm very glad to join Attorney General Garland, Deputy Attorney General Monaco, and CFTC Chairman Benham on such an important occasion. We're here today to announce the Treasury Department's historic action, the largest enforcement action in Treasury's history against Binance, the world's largest virtual currency exchange, for its consistent and egregious violations of US anti-money laundering and sanctions law. Protecting the US financial system and through that, the global financial system is core to the Treasury Department's mission. And ever since Binance launched its convertible virtual currency platform, it has knowingly evaded the US laws designed to protect these systems. Over more than three years, Finsen, OFAC, and IRS criminal investigation thoroughly investigated key aspects of Binance's activities. Our work revealed that Binance claimed to have exited the US market years ago, but actually did not, retaining US users and other significant ties with the United States. It also had critical gaps in its anti-money laundering program and practices, from a lack of risk-based procedures for various offerings, to instructing staff to withhold information from law enforcement. It deliberately undermined its own sanctions, monitoring controls, and it failed to report suspicious transactions. This meant Binance was allowing illicit actors to transact freely, supporting activities from child sexual abuse, to illegal narcotics, to terrorism, or cross more than 100,000 transactions. That includes transactions associated with terrorist groups like Hamas's Al-Qasam Brigade's Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS. Binance processed these transactions, but it never filed a single suspicious activity report, and it also allowed over one and a half million virtual currency trades that violated US sanctions. So we have taken the largest enforcement action in Treasury's history. FinCEN settlement agreement assesses a penalty of $3.4 billion. OFAC settlement agreement assesses a penalty of nearly a billion dollars. Binance is also required to report the suspicious transactions. It has failed to report to date and to establish an effective anti-money laundering program to support the global AML-CFT regime. And the settlement agreements subject Binance to increase scrutiny for five years through a third-party monitor overseen by FinCEN, who will ensure Binance's complete exit from the United States. The monitor will be able to access Binance's systems, transactions, and accounts, and will review and report on all actions included in the settlement agreements. Failure to live up to these obligations could expose Binance to substantial additional penalties. The result of these agreements will be an end-to-company behavior that is posed risk to the U.S. financial system, U.S. citizens, and our country's national security for too long. And let me be clear, we're also sending a message to the virtual currency industry more broadly, today and for the future. If virtual currency exchanges and financial technology firms wish to realize the tremendous benefits of being part of the U.S. financial system and serving U.S. customers, they must play by the rules. And if they do not, the U.S. government will take action. Today's announcement shows the Treasury is prepared to use all of its tools to carry out its crucial mandate of combating illicit finance and protecting the U.S. financial system, and this will make all of us safer. I want to end by thanking FinCEN, OFAC, and IRS criminal investigation employees who play a central role in protecting our national security. Adequate resourcing was critical to carrying out this work. Thank you also to the partner agencies here today for such effective collaboration. And with that, I'll turn the floor over to Deputy Attorney General Monaco. Thank you, Madam Secretary, and good afternoon. Today is a watershed moment. The Department of Justice and its partners are holding accountable the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange and the CEO who ran it for their criminal conduct. Finance vaulted to the top of the crypto market in part through the scheme exposed today by pursuing growth, market share, and profits at the expense of compliance with U.S. law. Today's charges and guilty pleas combined with a more than $4 billion financial penalty demonstrate the Justice Department's commitment to corporate accountability. And they sent an unmistakable message to crypto and DeFi companies if you serve U.S. customers, you must obey U.S. law. A corporate strategy that puts profits over compliance isn't a path to riches, it's a path to federal prosecution. As detailed in the statement of FACTS, Chang Peng-Zao was warned by his own compliance team that Binance lacked basic safeguards to prevent users from evading U.S. sanctions. He was warned of the high risk associated with some customers on their exchange. He was even warned that the CFO of another company had been arrested for sanctions violations and that the same thing could happen at Binance. But rather than implement the basic anti-money laundering safeguards that his team recommended, safeguards required by U.S. law, Binance and its founder operated as though the rules didn't apply, as though they were beyond our reach. Crypto assets may be advertised as borderless in nature, but the Department of Justice will enforce U.S. law across and throughout crypto markets, even in their darkest corners. Some say the key to success in the tech sector is to move fast and break things. Today's actions show that if what you break is the law, there will be consequences. Over five years, while building its business with U.S. customers, Binance enabled nearly $1 billion in illegal payments involving sanctioned countries and individuals. These actions put our collective security at risk. Today, companies are increasingly operating on the front lines of the geopolitical and national security challenges that mark today's global environment. That's why the Justice Department is focused on the intersection of corporate crime and national security. Today, corporate crime undermines not only our markets and investors, but also our national security. The laws we are enforcing today were designed to protect the security of our financial markets and to protect our financial institutions from exploitation by terrorists and money launderers. Today's actions show that those rules apply equally to traditional financial institutions and those powered by decentralized and cutting edge technologies. Today's resolutions are the result of and a credit to the combined energy and expertise of prosecutors and law enforcement agents from across the government. And in particular, I'd like to thank Nicole Argentieri, the acting assistant attorney general for the criminal division who's here today, Matt Olson, the assistant attorney general for national security who's also here on stage, and Tessa Gorman, US attorney for the Western District of Washington. They each lead teams who have worked tirelessly on this case. The partnership between the criminal divisions, money laundering and asset recovery experts and the national security divisions, export control and counterintelligence experts is a response to the growing convergence of white collar and national security investigations. So we're combining our deep expertise from across the department to combat these new and evolving threats. Together with our partners, the Justice Department will hold accountable those who occupy the C-suite and the boardroom if they exploit technologies in violation of our laws. With that, I'll turn it over to Chairman Benham. Good afternoon. Thank you, Attorney General Garland, Treasury Secretary Yellen, Deputy Attorney General Monaco and all of our law enforcement counterparts. Today, the CFTC stands with the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department in protecting US investors and financial markets from those who sought to create an empire through a calculated strategy of regulatory avoidance and arbitrage. Outright defiance of the law and breaching the fundamental principles of market behavior. Today, the CFTC agreed to resolve charges against Binance, its founder and CEO, Cheng Peng Zhao and its former Chief Compliance Officer, Samuel Lim. Binance is the world's largest digital asset exchange and offers trading and spot digital assets and digital asset derivatives, including CFTC jurisdictional products such as Bitcoin futures, options and swaps. The proposed orders impose a civil monetary penalty and disgorgement totaling $2.7 billion against Binance, 150 million civil monetary penalty against Zhao and a $1.5 million penalty against Lim. Binance's activities undermine the foundation of safe and sound financial markets by intentionally avoiding basic fundamental obligations that apply to exchanges. All the while collecting approximately 1.35 billion in trading fees from US customers. Beyond the risks imposed on the US financial system, Binance's activities impacted populations beyond investors in ways that cannot be measured in dollars and cents. As evidenced by the internal chats of Binance's CCO and others, Binance recognized that its platform was used to facilitate criminal activity, including terrorist financing, but chose to turn a blind eye, all in the name of profits. More disturbing, Binance and its leaders sought to dupe and indoctrinate their employees and customers, building a cult-like following premised on circumventing their own compliance controls to maximize corporate profits above all else. As charge in the CFTC complaint filed in March of this year and set forth in the consent order, Binance made deliberate, strategic and calculated decisions to evade federal law over a period of nearly four years. Binance, under Zhao's direction and control, knowingly solicited and accepted orders from US-based customers to trade digital asset commodity derivatives products and operated in exchange for the trading of futures options swaps and leveraged retail commodity transactions. Throughout this time period, Binance never registered with the CFTC as is required under US law. The resolution of the action against Binance and Zhao within just eight months of its filing solidifies the CFTC's reputation as the proven leader in the civil enforcement space when it comes to digital assets. We are stalwart in ensuring CFTC registrants comply with our statute and regulations, which serve to protect broader financial health and that directly impacts millions of American investors. Binance failed to diligently supervise its derivatives markets activities and miscarried requirements to implement adequate anti-money laundering. Know your customer and customer identification programs required for certain CFTC registrants. These provisions serve to protect all Americans from those who seek to use the financial markets to facilitate criminal activities, including domestic and international terrorism. As there remain certain classes of registrants who have lesser requirements, I believe our action here underscores what we could accomplish in CFTC markets with broader authority. American investors, small and large, have demonstrated eagerness to incorporate digital asset products into their portfolios. It is our duty to ensure that when they do so, the full protections afforded by our regulatory oversight are in place and that illegal and illicit conduct is swiftly addressed. When as here an entity goes even further, deliberately avoiding to employ meaningful access controls, intentionally avoiding knowing customers' identities and actively concealing the presence of U.S. customers on its platforms, there is no question that the CFTC will strike hard and aggressively. I wanna commend the incredible work of Kandy Hahn, Joseph Plot, Katherine Paulson, Joseph Patrick, Matthew Edelstein, Elizabeth Pendleton, Scott Williamson, and Robert Howell. I'd also like to acknowledge our Director of Enforcement, Ian McGinley, and Principal Deputy Director and Chief Counsel Gretchen Lowe. Thank you. One on topic and one off topic question, if you will indulge. So on the on topic, based on the allegations of this and some of the other cases that you brought, I'm wondering whether the concern in the industry about the ability of some of these startup companies and the smaller companies to abide by this very costly regulatory and legal regimen that the United States requires, whether it will mean that you can't really do virtual currency and have this industry thrive and some of the cutting edge things that Lisa and Monica just mentioned with that very heavy burden of regulatory compliance. I'm wondering whether you have a message for the industry when it comes to that. And then if I can ask my off topic question, we're expecting at the moment, the Israeli government and some of the other parties to announce an agreement for the release of hostages in being held by Hamas. If you can comment on that and also just what the Justice Department and some of the other agencies that are represented here are doing to respond to the attacks in Israel on October 7th. We know obviously the Hamas has had a presence here in the United States and the concern about how they raise money, including of course by cryptocurrency is something that is on everyone's mind. I'm wondering what you're doing about that in light of what happened. All right, let me start with the off topic. I was in a meeting this morning with national security officials, law enforcement officials and the president regarding fentanyl and he told the press that his team has been actively negotiating over possibility of bringing home some of the hostages. They thought that we were very close to being able to do that, but that he couldn't say anything more at that time and I also can't say anything more at that time, at this time. With respect to the deaths of Americans, we always investigate deaths of Americans and we are actively investigating the deaths of the Americans using all the tools available to us. We have I think as the FBI director said at recent all threats here and before the judiciary and as I've said, we are investigating Hamas connections in the United States with respect, particularly with respect to financial support and that includes cryptocurrency, we are also concerned about the possibility of more kinetic problems that they could cause and we're investigating that. Now I've talked a lot, so on the on topic question I will say you follow the law. You don't get a special benefit because you think that what you're doing is better for society or better for small business or better for big business or better for international. The United States has laws and everybody including cryptocurrency platforms have to follow the law. There's been a lot of concern about how unregulated the cryptocurrency markets are. You were able to get these guilty pleas, it took a long time. I'm just wondering how do you feel like realistically the significance of these guilty pleas are? What do you believe it could, what kind of impact could it actually have on the cryptocurrency markets? And then just a quick follow up is, you know, there is criticism that this is not a, that this isn't significant enough, that there nobody, there might be a situation which nobody goes to jail and the penalty itself, Binance is able to pay that penalty. How do you respond to that criticism? I have a call on Nicole Argentieri who's the acting assistant attorney general for the criminal division to answer most of the questions you're talking about, the broader ones that have to do with regulation. It's possible, Secretary Yellen or the CFTC that chair would address. Thank you, sir. So I'll take the second question first. I think looking at the pleas today by every possible measure, these are some of the most significant penalties the department has ever imposed on a financial institution. Not only is it one of the largest penalties imposed against a financial institution, this is the largest penalty that's ever been imposed on a money services business. It's the first corporate resolution with a cryptocurrency exchange and it's the first resolution with an MSB for sanctions violations. And the financial penalty is just, it's not the only significant part of the resolution. Binance, which is the parent holding company, is agreeing to plead guilty. And as part of that, we're going to impose a monitor for three years. The company has to enhance its compliance program and to continue to cooperate with the department. So we think it's quite a significant resolution. In addition, the agreement with the company requires Zhao to step down from his role as CEO and prohibits him from any present or future involvement in operating or managing binance. So we think this is a very significant resolution. In what tools do we have and what should people take away from today? I think that today's actions show that if you serve U.S. customers, you must comply with U.S. law. U.S. financial institutions are the gatekeepers for the safety and security of our financial system. And because binance served a substantial amount of U.S. customers, it was a U.S. financial institution that was required to comply with anti-money laundering laws. And what those laws say is that binance had to have an effective anti-money laundering compliance program, including procedures to know its customers and to monitor for suspicious activity. And what happened instead is binance and Zhao prioritized profit over compliance. And that failure to implement effective AML procedures led Binance to cause U.S. customers to transact with customers in Iran that violated U.S. sanctions. Treasury or CFTC wants you? The podium is yours. Well, just very briefly, I agree with the comments that were just made. We actually have rather strong legal authorities to police this type of activity. Virtual currency exchanges are financial institutions. Financial institutions of all sizes are required to comply with AML, CFT, and sanctions obligations that they have, and cryptocurrency or virtual currency exchanges have those obligations as well. And I think today's actions show that we're very serious about enforcing the strong regulations that are already in place to make sure that illegal transactions are not fostered by cryptocurrency entities. This is a regime just as banks can flourish meeting these obligations. This is a regime that can support responsible innovation. It's not meant to end cryptocurrency activities, but to the extent they occur, it must be consistent with U.S. law. Just to say, from a market's perspective and distinguishing Secretary Yellen's comments about AML and KYC, I've seen and we've seen gaps in the current regulatory structure around digital assets. I've advocated for filling in some of these gaps, specifically around commodity tokens. And I do think if we're able to do that, obviously with Congress's help, we can prevent these actions from happening and not have to be here after the fact. Some of the traditional tools of registration, surveillance, examinations, they've worked well for decades in the U.S. financial system for both market regulators. And we think those types of tools around digital assets, if improved and expanded, would certainly help in preventing some of these bad actions from happening again in the future. I had a question both for the DOJ and Treasury. So when it comes to the types of priorities, enforcement priorities and crypto that the DOJ has had, there was a big focus obviously on digital platforms that commit crimes or that at least let them happen. We've obviously seen the DOJ bring big cases now against Binance, FTX, Treasury separately has also increasingly taken actions against crypto players when it comes to money laundering or sanction violations. So in light of these actions, having taken these actions in the market so far, what are your priorities now, both for the DOJ and Treasury, going forward when it comes to crypto oversights? Are you thinking of deploying different types of strategies, especially since we're seeing a growing aspect and angle when it comes to national security concerns beyond, say, a financial stability concern when it comes to these crypto platforms? Great question. I'm gonna let the deputy begin the answer for the Justice Department and kick it over to Matt if you need on national security. Thanks very much for the questions to find out. First thing I'd say is these are incredibly complicated and resource intensive and time consuming cases. And so we need the resources and we're willing to and have as we've shown today and in prior cases deploy those resources. So we're always looking to add our resources and agent investigators, prosecutors. Second thing I'd say is you have seen both of our actions today and in prior cases that we will be relentless in using every tool that we currently have to deploy against those who seek to use technologies in a way that abuse those platforms that cause the or don't prevent the use of those platforms for illicit activities. But we always wanna make sure that we're working with Congress and others to make sure those tools that we have today stay up to date, right? We know that the bad guys and the threat actors will try to exploit every crack and crevice they can to exploit technologies, to exploit gaps in the law. You've heard the CFTC chairman talk about some of the tools he needs. So we wanna make sure the existing laws stay up to date. And then I think we very much wanna work with those in Congress and others who want to ensure that we can deploy every tool possible to make sure that the technologies that can help our prosperity and help our financial system also aren't ripe for abuse by illicit actors. That's why you've seen us do things like create the national cryptocurrency enforcement team. That's why and Matt Olson can speak to this. That's why they created the national security cyber unit because what we're seeing is more and more convergence of the exploitation both of the financial system and corporate crime in the national security space. I think I'll ask Matt to come up and I'm sure Treasury Secretary Yellen might wanna speak to this as well. Thank you, Lisa. I would just say briefly that as we respond to the nature of the threats we see today around the world, whether we're talking about terrorism, we're talking about nation state adversaries like Russia and China and Iran. We are increasingly using our tools, sanctions enforcement, export control enforcement, cybersecurity from nation state adversaries. We're increasingly seeing the ability to use the tools that we have in the justice department from a law enforcement perspective to better protect the country by going after those threats using those tools in new and innovative ways. So to your question, we are constantly adjusting our approach and our priorities to meet that threat on a daily basis and I think this case is just one more example of that. Well, I would just add that I think what the case today shows is that Treasury's priority is to vigorously pursue investigations that involve sanctions violations or violations of AML, CFT obligations that put our nation at risk, that degrade the global financial system, that aid illicit activity and terrorism and particularly in cases like this where there are violations of a truly egregious nature. So as I've said, well, of course, we wanna make sure that our tools stay up to date and are adjusted so that we can address emerging threats. We believe we have strong tools and we've been increasingly deploying them to counter this type of abuse.