A former executive at the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is suing the company, claiming she was fired after blowing the whistle on bribery concerns.
Former London-based Binance senior employee Amrita Srivastava filed the claim in an employment tribunal, according to a Nov. 28 Bloomberg report. She claims that a colleague took bribes by “providing consulting services” that would speed up the integration of clients into Binance.
“My experience at Binance has been personally detrimental to my career, an impact that I will continue to reverse over the next few years,” Srivastava wrote in his court filing.
The news follows reports in May that Binance had suspended an investigator who discovered some of its customers were involved in pump-and-dump schemes and money laundering. The company dismissed the head of the investigation team a week after receiving the report, deeming the evidence against its “VIP” customers insufficient.
The colleague in question – who left Binance – also pretended not to work for the company. Srivastava also worked remotely on the firm's Binance link platform, which connects foreign brokers and clients to the exchange.
“I was not prepared to look the other way when someone cheated a client and I was a member of the team – some things are right and wrong, and asking for a bribe and cheating a client was not gray – this is not. Srivastava said in his testimony.
A Binance representative told Decrypt that the company is “aware of the inappropriate allegations made by Ms. Srivastava.” The company said she had “raised an issue that was previously being investigated by our internal audit team due to her termination” and “poor performance in her work schedule.”
“For the avoidance of doubt, Binance has strict anti-retaliation and anti-bribery policies,” a company spokesperson said.
In her lawsuit against Binance Europe, she said she told her management about the bribes in April 2023 and was fired a month later. The exchange's lawyer argued that the company knew about the incident and decided to let her go because of performance issues.
“Due to previous poor performance, she has raised an issue that was previously known and is being investigated by our internal audit team,” Binance told Bloomberg.
Srivastava joined the exchange in April 2022 after working at MasterCard as head of fintech coverage for Western Europe. She says she understands that her colleagues want to “fix” Binance and make it compliant.
Instead, she lamented a chaotic work environment where “compromise is pressured.”
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
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