Binance.US legal executive, chief risk officer leave the exchange: WSJ

Binance.US is losing additional executives as pressure mounts from regulators, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Krishna Juvvadi, head of legal, and Sidney Majalya, chief risk officer, are leaving the exchange, the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the departures. 

This comes just days after the head of Binance.US Brian Shroder left the firm, with a third of its staff laid off. The exchange has scaled back operations following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Binance filed in June. 

"The SEC’s aggressive attempts to cripple our industry and the resulting impacts on our business have real world consequences for American jobs and innovation, and this is an unfortunate example of that,” a spokesperson told The Block regarding Schroder's departure on Tuesday. 

Juvvadi joined Binance.US in May 2022 from Uber, where he served as global head of operations compliance. He also worked for the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division as a trial attorney earlier in his career. 

Majalya joined Binance.US in December 2021 and was previously the chief compliance officer at Intel.

Both Juvvadi and Majalya did not respond to requests for comment from WSJ. Binance.US did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Block. 

Trouble with the SEC

The SEC sued Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, in June over 13 charges including operating as an unregistered exchange and said they attempted to evade U.S. securities laws. 

"We allege that Zhao and the Binance entities not only knew the rules of the road, but they also consciously chose to evade them and put their customers and investors at risk – all in an effort to maximize their own profits," Gurbir S. Grewal, diirector of the SEC’s enforcement division, said in June in a statement.