Binance “Fairly Successful” in Ousting North Koreans

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• Binance has been “fairly successful” at ousting North Korean hackers and money launderers
• The head of its financial crime compliance unit, Tigran Gambaryan, gave the assessment yesterday at Consensus 2023
• Binance’s compliance issues have come to the fore this year

Binance has been “fairly successful” at ousting North Korean hackers and money launderers, according to Tigran Gambaryan, the head of its financial crime compliance unit. Gambaryan, who joined the company in September 2021, was discussing the company’s compliance at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2023 event where he revealed the scope of the operation, including the number of requests it receives on a weekly basis and revealed that the rise in ‘pig butchering scams is the biggest concern of the department right now.

Binance is Winning, Says Gambaryan

Gambaryan came to Binance with a strong pedigree, having been involved in bringing down Silk Road and the two U.S. agents who stole from it in the aftermath, and he has brought his tough approach to the compliance sector. The former Inland Revenue Service cyber specialist told Consensus 2023 that Binance has seen major progress in its fight to keep North Korean hackers and money launderers off the platform:

We kicked their ass enough that they’re actually able to recognize that Binance was not the place for them. Binance has been fairly successful…whether it’s about how they circumvent controls or identifying the different entities or types of identification that they try to spoof.

Gambaryan offered an insight into the workload handled by the now 700-strong compliance team, which tackles 1,300 law enforcement requests per week.

Binance has been accused of aiding money launderers by not having strict enough control in place, accusations Gambrayan has deniedalthough its reputation received a boost when it helped U.S. authorities bring down Bitzlato in January.