0. Where to begin?
The upcoming articles are the result of my reserach I did over the last 6 weeks on multiple crypto companies and how they are connected. Before reading this article I highly recommend to read the article published by bitfinexed yesterday:
I want to share my results of my ongoing research with every interested reader and journalists to give insight on a topic that looks like Gordian knot with an endless amount of shell companies, officers and directors. It is exactly this - a Gordian knot, while the 21. century and the digital work give us the possibility to research companies from all over the world and shed some light on the structures and connections that developed around certain companies.
1. The Malta-HQ and the Donations that never arrived
The story began in 2018: On the 23 March 2018 - Binance announced its HQ relocation to Malta - and also started a fundrais for Cancer Patients on Malta the same year with a total donation volume of around 30k BNB.
While Binance never moved to Malta as it had been announced earlier it also had never been licensed in Malta. While the donations collected by Binance never found their way to the ill cancer patients.
”The Malta Community Chest Foundation (MCCFF), a charity led by Maltese president George Vella, claims it’s yet to receive over $9 million in crypto (mostly BNB) that Binance promised to terminally ill cancer patients four years ago.”
In 30th July 2021, Binance published a blog addressing this situation and stated:
The tokens are still in the mentioned wallet - so likely non of the cancer patients recieved any part of the donation so far.
2. The head of the CZnake: Binance (Services) Holdings Limited in Ireland
Our journey begins in Great Britain - to find out who is controlling the companies registered in Malta:
From March 2020 to Feb 2022 CZ was the person with significant control over BINANCE EUROPE LTD - afterwards Binance (Services) Holdings Limited is named as the person with significant control:
Source: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12495902/persons-with-significant-contro
But there are at least two more companie - who are based in Malta:
Binance Europe Service Limited (Malta) - Registration Date Apr 10, 2018
Binance Marketing Services Limited (Malta) - Registration Date Apr 09, 2018 - while the Shares are owned by CZ (1199 Shares) and Binance (Services) Holdings Limited (1 Shares)
Binance (Services) Holdings Limited is currently offering job positions in Dubai - while they are looking for people in various positions from “Full-stack Developer” to “Investigations Specialist - UAE” - who should:
”- Knowledge of open-source investigations (OSINT) and/or due diligence;
- Experience researching and analyzing cyber-crime, especially if financial in nature, and familiarity with cybercriminal organizations and tactics;
- A basic understanding of DNS and IP address analysis.” (Stay save researchers out there!)
3.1 Ms. GUANGYING CHEN
Both companies are directed by Ms. GUANGYING CHEN - a person that is not in the spotlight as Mr. Zhao is - while she is part of Binance since the beginning and still involved in the companies located in Malta.
Her name also appears at a company that had been registered in New Zealand - NEW ZEALAND HUA YING INTERNATIONAL TRADE LIMITED (7849857) who was founded 05. Dec 2019 and dissolved on 28 Oc. 2020. The person named in the filings is named Guang Ying Chen - while the name in the exemple above is currently written as Guangying Chen.
In Tweets posted in October 2019, we can observe two different ways, of how her name was written in official files:
3/ Guangying Chen
4/ GuangYing Chen
Researches published by scambinance.com share a third way to write her name (context: “She is the owner of Bijie Tech, and as a consequence of Binance casino in general.“ :
For this reason it seams likely that she is also the former owner of the company founded in New Zealand. It seams important to mention that Ms. Ying Wan, born 1982, is connected to multiple companies all around the world (f.e. XYNICS LTD, UK, 2012-2019)
3.2 Secretary and Auditor
The person who is mentioned as secretary for both companies in Malta is ANNELIESE AGIUS GERADA. According to a video that was posted on Facebook - she is married to Godfrey Agius - who got mentioned in the Paradise Papers publications. It is unknown if he is related to Adrian and Robert Agius who were involved in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 in Malta.
She studied Accounting and published an article with the titel “The applicability of mandatory audit firm rotation in Maltese public limited companies”
Both companies are audited by PKF MALTA LIMITED - where Alexandre Fenech is named as director - someone who also found his ways into the Paradise Paper publications.