Bitcoin Forum

There are multiple people from Canada, UK, Brazil, and Colombia who reported that Binance seized and frozen their accounts because of Netherlands Tax Investigation, even if they have no connection with Netherland nor they are Dutch citizens.
Binance apparently flagged their accounts for money laundering and criminal activities, and one guy from Canada contacted their support and got this reply with strange future date October 24th.
I can't be sure if this is legit, but I noticed that r/binance reddit moderators are deleting any post connected with this, so it's best to think twice before you use Binance again.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/q9xy5q/binance_seized_my_life_took_everything_i_have/

We should always have this in mind, that if not our key it is not our coin on the blockchain, this makes us not to have the full control over what (the coin) we suppose to have full control on. What to solve this kind of issue is to use a noncustododial wallet and decentralized exchange that can provide the full control we need. Today it is Binance, that doesn't mean it won't be any other reputed centralized exchange next time.

Seems a bit fake, no criminal investigation team will release any information to the person suspected of a criminal act this way, and for sure they will not tell them why they have frozen their funds before a case is brought in court. Neither would Binance be allowed to tell you anything about the reasons why your account is frozen, that is called tipping off and they would be prosecuted also if they inform the possible suspect of the case against them.
FIOD gathers information, then they make a file and they will hand it to a prosecutor, this will decide how to act from now on, and if he goes to court, before that no information like this will be told to the one being investigated.

Hello, were from the police, yeah, you're a suspect in a money-laundering scheme, will give about two-three months so you can erase all the traces and contact all your accomplices, then we will drop you an email again!

Are you official Binance exchange account and can you please post some proof about that?
I said that I can't be sure if this reddit reports are true or not, but I also don't trust Binance and even less some random binance coin accounts in forum.

Doesn't even feel like a phishing/scam etc. Just some guy trolling, or reddit OP having a bit of fun cause he's bored. Really wouldn't be the first time, best way to get several thousand upvotes ;)

First smell of fish: no one sells their house to put it all into an exchange. Anyone who does, well, doesn't exist.

Secondly, Dutch tax authorities won't be emailing like this. That's way too efficient and proper to be true.

Binance guerrilla marketing huh?

Actually, that's the thing that gives it a bit of legitimacy.
Why is the date of my letter in the future?
https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/nl/belastingaangifte/content/datum_brief_dag_in_de_toekomst

So the guy who did that knows how the FIOD works a little or he received at least one email from them yesterday or whenever this happened.
If someone would fabricate everything he wouldn't be so dumb to put a fake date, so I assume the one that posted this was somehow in touch with the FIOD but I doubt that all the content of that letter is the original.

Why are you avoiding my question I asked before?
Are you official Binance exchange account and can you please post some proof about that?
If you don't reply I will consider you a fake representative from now on.

Whether or not this is a fake claim, there are obvious concerns with keeping any coin on an exchange or wallet that you do not have exclusive control over. I know there are people that have circumstances that makes it impossible to avoid using exchanges or having their own address, but outside of that there should be as little coin as possible out of your control.

We've seen it too many times in the past; exchanges blow up in popularity and then disappear, for one reason or another, once they reach peak holdings.

I don't believe these claims and they seem to be an attempt to scare people into checking identity but that doesn't mean they won't Seize your account if they want to.
They have a condition that allows them to seizing your account, you can't do anything, and they can change the databases and delete your account without you being able to prove it.


They will not appear to seizing accounts randomly, but will respond to any request from government agencies.

This is strange enough that this case is either a scam attempt by somebody or the user is simply high of anything and he/she is just having fun.

For one, the letter which is supposed to be coming from the Dutch authorities, is poorly written. And aside from the interesting details pointed out by some users here, it seems to me the content itself is dubious. For example, can a public prosecutor order an international company to freeze and even seize assets under investigation? I don't think so. I could be mistaken, but that's not the work of a public prosecutor. Secondly, why is there forfeiture and confiscation when the account is already frozen? After all, they're still investigating.

Yes! As long as it has sufficient evidence of a crime or illegality being committed that affects either a citizen or a business of the said country or has a connection to such one he can.
There are a lot of international treaties that allow such a thing and Binance right now is in no position to even dare challenge such a request.


Yes, it is, FIOD does the investigation, the prosecutor orders the legal action.


Depends on the gravity of the case, the mobility of the assets, and the prosecutor's decision.
If he has concluded that simply freezing the account and letting Binance be a custodian for the assets is not secure enough he can order those to be seized and transferred to the investigation unit.

Pretty simple stuff, but again doesn't mean that this case is real, my hunch is still on the guy receiving a completely different letter from FIOD and doctoring the content.

Well that's not acceptable if they start to block the accounts without any reason. They can't do this because the accounts contains people hard earned money. Even if they want to close the accounts, they should give people deadline that they should withdraw from the accounts.
Do they have any proof of money laundering ? They should share it and get the opinion from the affected users also.

There are more reports like this coming from Colombia that got suspended and frozen following Dutch police inquiry.
Users who got affected by this joined together and created a lawsuits against Binance so there is ongoing criminal investigation now.
It looks that most of affected users used Binance P2P platform, some of them got email to contact Dutch authorities, others had to show proof of Colombian identification and income, and some of them even had to contact United States authorities.

https://i.imgur.com/PAJBDc8.jpg
Source article written in Spanish:
https://www.criptonoticias.com/comunidad/binance-bloquea-usuarios-colombia-investigacion-policia-holandesa/

---

https://loyce.club/archive/posts/5825/58257773.html

Oh, so now it's not a scam, and Binance is really seizing accounts and freezing funds?!
Then I don't understand what's with all the posting of comment screenshots from reddit, better prepare yourself for bunch of lawsuits because you can't do whatever you want.
There is obviously something more behind this story, so let's see what happens in next few months.

---

You are contradicting yourself, showing terms and admitting that you are seizing and freezing accounts, but after that you are saying it's all fabrication and fake ::)

Yeah, it's the same fabrication like when Binance caused that flash crash 87% drop for Bitcoin price because of the ''algorithm bug'', so I guess it must all be some global conspiracy against Binance...  ::)

---

Are you blind or just dumb by any chance?
First, you still didn't reply to my repeated questions if you are really official representative of Binance exchange in this forum or not.
Second, I saw that date is future and I clearly said that in my first post of this topic, so you need to go back and read that again,
than one member replied that exactly this gives more legitimacy to this screenshot, and it's not uncommon in Netherlands.

This is automated machine translation, and original link is posted below:
https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/nl/belastingaangifte/content/datum_brief_dag_in_de_toekomst

We are going to see if the this lawsuit against Binance is also fabricated or not, and who is lying here.

---

You are again avoiding to answer my question so I will not continue this discussion with you anymore, and I am supporting red flag against you created by suchmoon in this topic:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5367331

EDIT:
Since scammer deleted many of his previous posts in this topic you can find them all archived here:
https://ninjastic.space/topic/5366158
https://loyce.club/archive/topics/536/5366158.html

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

I might have missed that thread otherwise, thanks for pointing it out @dkbit98.

@Everyone, it appears that user account "Binance Coin" is an impersonator and not an official representative of the Binance Exchange. This troll account is linked to corner (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=1096223), and most likely one of his many alt accounts.

Binance never mentions that they have some staff here on the forum or even on their Twitter account or support they don't have staff here on the forum.

And look at this merit he receives https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=2625435

It was from Excimer which had lots of negative reviews. So possible this is his alt account trying to be one of the Binance staff until other people can be trapped on his strategy. I'm not saying it's him but he is the only one who gives 1 merit.

I personally contacted Binance exchange to confirm that account Binance Coin (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2625435) is impersonating scammer, so please stay tuned for final resolution until they reply to me.
Not sure if he is connected with corner or with some other account but everyone should just ignore him from now on.

Why does Binance comply to a request from a random country? I would get it if the requests are for people living within the Netherlands, not elsewhere. Binance itself is illegally operating in the Netherlands because they didn't register at DNB (https://www.dnb.nl/en/public-register/register-of-crypto-service-providers/).

From that link:
Did they forget Dutch law means nothing outside the Netherlands?

Lol. You can always rely on government's inefficiency indeed :D

I wouldn't assume a poorly written letter means it can't be produced by a government.

If these claims on Binance are true and if the Dutch government has really been behind this, then we can assume that those accounts are involved in money laundering, drugs trafficking and other forms of financing criminality which used Binance as their exchange of choice.

The Netherlands is also one of the biggest receivers of cocaine produced in Colombia. These claims of lifetime savings being seized are only claims until we can confirm that those people behind them are innocent. Why would Binance seize accounts without good reasons?

That's because the Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe. That makes the Netherlands the largest receiver of anything.

@LoyceV. That makes the argument stronger that the Netherlands is certainly the largest receiver of cocaine from Colombia and maybe also all other forms of narcotics from all over other countries like Mexican methampetamines. I speculate other exchanges should be receiving letters from the government of the Netherlands.

Perhaps I'm assuming too much or looking too highly at the Dutch government.


I think you are going too far in the list of possibilities explaining what's currently happening. In the first place, this email was not exclusively sent to users in Colombia. Users as far as the UK, Canada, and other countries have also received the same communication.

Why would Binance seize accounts without good reasons? We don't know. But they've been doing that. Perhaps the triggers are simply too sensitive that their good reasons may seem to us not good enough. Perhaps the exchange is overreacting to certain activities detected in some users' accounts.

@Darker45. Is it going to far to say that exchanges in the cryptospace are possibly growing environments for moving money used for criminality?

Also, are you implying that it is more possible that Binance is scamming their own users than being pressured by Dutch government to freeze those accounts?

You also say those users who are complaining are from different jurisdictions, can we assume that those users are really from UK and Canada and did not use fake identities?

I am not defending Binance, however, is Binance really scamming their own users to steal their money?

No, it's not. But the context of this is that there are more than a handful individuals whose accounts in Binance are suddenly suspended. Some of these accounts have balances smaller than a BTC. And here you are floating the idea that it must have something to do with Colombia being a producer of Cocaine and that Netherlands is one of its biggest receivers.

Do you seriously think that individuals involved in this international cocaine transactions use Binance, a centralized exchange which now requires every single user to undergo KYC? Do you think these users who are talking about lifetime savings in the amount smaller than 1BTC are involved in international drug trades? Come on.

@Darker45. Yes I am serious that crime syndicates use all exchanges to move money across the world. Yes I am serious that being crime syndicates, they can KYC by using fake identities bought from the darknet or pay individuals directly for them to KYC and become their money mules.

Also, do you always trust what people claim on the internet? What if it was a money mule who was trying for a last blow of hope to get back the money? He might also only be a casualty of a crackdown by the Dutch government.

I am arguing from the assumption that the letter from the Dutch government is true. If true, there might be something bigger happening behind this. This is certainly not Binance trying to scam innocent users similar to what some people want to imply.

This is really going to dent their companies reputation and already accounts have being closed for non KYC compliance...things are certainly not going in their favor!

If the Netherlands Tax Investigation is affecting users from other jurisdictions then this is negligence on the part of Binance which should be corrected with immediate effect,why punish people for offenses they did not commit.....


If indeed this is true, Binance was suppose to come out clean over these allegations and not deleting these concerns from its users,trying to hide the bad press this is generating is not going to make things go away, things will become worse....possibly legal battles will what will follow next.

For all centralized exchanges this is the endgame. Binance is not invicible.

They obviously are going to be comply with regulators especially if they are large because they don't want to lose the ability to operate in these countries.

But this is often at the detriment to users as they are subject to the arbitrary rulings of the courts etc. This is why DeFi is the way forward too - not going to find that sort of issue when your exchange is operated without a central point of failure.

@magneto. I disagree and those statements that centralized exchanges are in their endgame are only presently larping. Do you see what FTX is doing? However, it might be the beginning of the endgame for Binance, I reckon hehehe.

In today's (Dutch) news: OM legt beslag op meer dan 25 miljoen euro aan cryptovaluta in witwasonderzoek (https://www.nu.nl/tech/6166614/om-legt-beslag-op-meer-dan-25-miljoen-euro-aan-cryptovaluta-in-witwasonderzoek.html).

I guess this is related to Binance accounts being seized, as it's not possible to confiscate real crypto wallets without physical access (which they don't have if they don't know the suspects' identities).

So it looks like that all the rumors and people complaining about this turned out to be true after all, but one thing I don't understand is how could they do that for people who are not Dutch citizens :/
Binance exchange and CZ now proved that they will now do just about anything to survive and avoid ban or sanctions from some countries.

I'm curious if they're guilty of doing what they're being accused of: Say you're a Colombian drug lord Canadian citizen, and say your Binance account gets seized, telling you it's about money laundering. Would you publicly complain about this or just move on? I would expect the innocent people to complain, and the criminals to just write it off as "business costs".

That's the real question:
Note that I have no idea what's "common" in international law enforcement. Maybe it's all just business as usual.

Maybe they're looking to get registered:

---

---

I just realize: did they really confiscate the funds? As in: did Binance hand it over to Dutch authorities? Or did they just freeze the accounts until further notice?
If they really handed over funds, that can open up a whole new angle of attack for scammers!

I would expect the same, unless we are talking about some small time wannabe drug dealer who is hustling around the corner to survive as a pimp.
Interesting thing is that Binance is still deleting any mention about this topic in their reddit page, typical Chinese heavy censorship stuff.

They operated and still operating illegally all over the world and not just in Netherlands, except maybe in US with their .us domain website.

Form my previous research it appears that Binance first freezes accounts and then you receive email from Dutch authorities.
If you don't reply anything until deadline, Binance will than seize your coins and send them to Dutch officials.
It could be different for specific country but anyway I would suggest anyone to stay away from using Binance.

How does that work? Say I register orn.nl and use it to email CZ@Binance. I adjust the Nigerian prince story a bit, and suddenly I'm a government official asking to freeze dkbit98's account and send funds to me?

Just a reminder: "not your keys not your coins"!

I don't know exactly all CZ's schemes, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is some Chinese communist party leader story that works just as good if not better than Nigerian prince story.
There are regular police reports here about elderly people who are sending money to unknown people who offered them ''high gains'' for investing in cryptocurrency.
If people are still falling for that stuff and not using their brain, than anything is possible.

Money launderers use money mules. They pay people to act and KYC for them. It is also possible that those people who had their accounts frozen are only from one very small part of a larger money laundering ring. According to this article, up to 5% is lost from the world GDP to money laundering.



Money laundering activities cost the world 2% to 5% of its GDP.

Determining the actual cost of money laundering to the nations is difficult due to the layering and integration processes funds go through. However, the United Nations believes that the estimated value of money laundering worldwide, according to recent statistics, is between 2% and 5% of the world’s GDP. That’s approximately $800 billion to $2 trillion laundered annually.

Source https://legaljobs.io/blog/money-laundering-statistics/

There is a  small difference between the Dutch Laws being enforced in criminal cases outside the Netherlands and a foreign company cooperating with Dutch agencies in a criminal case, the case itself is similar to requesting a hosting company, a mobile carrier, or whatever other data provider or bank to assist you in a criminal investigation, no company is stupid to refuse unless this would hurt its business a lot more.

At this point that drug lord trader is not trialed and it's not arrested, that would happen only if the Dutch police would file for an arrest via Interpol or ask for extradition, once he gets sent to Nieuw Vosseveld then the things change.

Bottom line, if you reside in a country that won't hand you over you can be safe, but your assets that are not stored under the same jurisdiction won't be 100%.

That makes sense. So it's possible the Canadian who had their account seized didn't know what they're involved in.
I often see shady offers on the Currency exchange board, where someone is obviously looking for a fall guy to take the risk.

I've also seen offers to buy "old" or "fresh" Bitcoin, and pay a premium. No doubt this is either a direct scam, or someone trying to launder his money. If a naive but otherwise innocent victim falls for that, they become the main suspects.

But still, it's a private company seizing assets without a court order just because some country puts in a request.

You don't need a court order, a prosecutor can issue an order for that too
https://www.ejn-crimjust.europa.eu/ejn/EJN_FichesBelgesResult/EN/501/337/-1
It's confiscation that can't be done without a court order.

And Binance has that also right in their first line in the ToS:

I speculate yes, for plausible deniability the money mules are not being told everything about the operation. They only deposit, trade, withdraw and keep a certain percentage of the money. This might also be similar in casinos and sportsbooks also, where money mules are told to deposit, gamble, withdraw and keep a certain percentage.