The precise days of this June trip, for “digital asset meetings”, are unknown. Bragg updated the Senate register of interests on July 13.
Last year, Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority announced that Binance is prohibited from conducting any regulated activity in Britain and warned consumers about firms advertising and selling investments in crypto-assets.
Around the same time, Japan’s Financial Services Agency warned that Binance was operating in the country illegally, Germany’s BaFin threatened to fine Binance for selling investment products without prospectuses and the Monetary Authority of Singapore banned Binance altogether and warned consumers it is not licensed.
In the United States, where it is banned, Binance is under investigation by the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Last month, Reuters reported that Iranian traders continued to operate on the Binance exchange in contravention of international sanctions.
This month, the Dutch central bank DNB fined Binance for operating in the Netherlands without being registered.
Saving the best for last, Binance last year handed over confidential customer data to Russian security services so Vladimir Putin‘s agencies could trace the sources of bitcoin donations to jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. And then send those donors a polite warning letter?
Yet Andrew Bragg exercised his judgment to accept Binance’s sponsorship of his international travel. His powers of judgment of him are not unlike his powers of comprehension of him: inoperative.
Standing in the Senate corridor on Wednesday, Bragg told SBS News “There’s no question there are far too many vested interests in this building and if I had it my way, I would have it locked to the lobbyists.”
Lock out the lobbyists, says the former lobbyist for bank-owned super funds. Too many vested interests, says the guy whose jolly to California was funded by the crypto industry. Turns out Bragg’s self-awareness is also on the blink.