The Judge claimed that the victim failed to prove that Binance had anything to do with the scam.
Binance, the largest crypto exchange in terms of daily trading volumes, has been exonerated from a lawsuit tied to a “pig butchering” fraud instigated via the dating app Tinder.
Yesterday, United States District Judge Amos Mazzant decreed that no sufficient evidence could link Binance Holdings Ltd. to the facilitation of the defrauding operation.
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During the hearing, the Judge stated that the victim was unable to produce any valid arguments to demonstrate the court’s jurisdiction over Binance.
Additionally, Mazzant declared that she failed to confirm that any part of the fraudulent activity took place in Texas, where Binance and Binance.US are legally prohibited from operating. Judge Mazzant noted:
Based on the facts alleged, at some point, the alleged stolen money would get converted to cryptocurrency using Binance, but nothing indicates that Texas was involved in those transactions.
The lawsuit hinged on allegations from Divya Gadasalli, who had been purportedly tricked out of a massive $8 million by a man she encountered on Tinder, presenting himself as “Jerry Bulasa.”
According to court records, Gadasalli was lured by Bulasa with promises of a flourishing romance and financial prosperity but instead found herself drawn into an intricate “pig butchering” scam.
The “pig butchering” strategy involves scammers fostering counterfeit relationships with their victims over weeks or months, only to manipulate them into surrendering substantial funds.
Over a year ago, Gadasalli brought her complaint before the court, naming Binance alongside several other defendants, including TD Bank, Abacus Federal Savings Bank, and the Poloniex exchange, seeking injunctive relief.
In the lawsuit, the woman contended that Binance had played a role in the scam by rendering exchange services to the fraudster. Furthermore, she asserted that Binance and Binance.US were essentially the same entity, accessed via VPNs (virtual private networks) by users.
This resolution marks a minor triumph for Binance amidst a tumultuous period of regulatory scrutiny in the US.
Binance, along with its CEO Changpeng Zhao, is currently being pursued by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over trading violation allegations, market manipulations, and a host of other purported irregularities since late March.
