CEO denies that Binance tried to avoid regulations

"Binance has always operated within the boundaries of the law," Zhao said in his response, rejecting claims that Binance designed the US arm to bypass rules. He also denied that profit motives drove the decision.

The leaked document Harry Zhou created outlined a complex arrangement. Zhou worked at Binance before co-founding California-based Koi Trading. The presentation detailed plans to extract revenue from the US entity through licensing fees and other mechanisms, funneling that money back to Binance's parent company. Customers would receive instruction on circumventing geographic limits, while the company implemented technological methods to accomplish the same goal.

"While the then-unnamed entity set up operations in the United States to distract regulators with feigned interest in compliance, measures would be put in place to move revenue in the form of licensing fees and more to the parent company, Binance. All the while, potential customers would be taught how to evade geographic restrictions while technological work-arounds were put in place," Del Castillo wrote.

According to Forbes, Jared Gross, who handled mergers and acquisitions at Binance, presented the document to Zhao in the fourth quarter of 2018. Forbes did not identify the source who leaked the presentation.

Zhao pushed back within an hour of publication. He challenged the core premise, saying Binance employees did not create the presentation. He pointed to law enforcement relationships and multinational operations as evidence the company maintained regulatory compliance.