• Binance has launched an investigation unit with a former FBI agent as the head.
• Kang is to build an investigation infrastructure for Binance.

The crypto exchange empire, Binance has launched an investigation unit with former FBI agent BJ Kang as the head. The team’s main goal is to stop illegal activity on the exchange platform.

The investigation unit is within the US crypto exchange. Binance’s vice president and head of legal Krishna Juvvadi affirmed that he sees former FBI agent BJ Kang become the company’s first “head of investigations” to curb crypto thefts permanently.

Kang is to build an investigation infrastructure for Binance. The role will see him partnering with law enforcement, regulators, and even other exchanges to seek out and stop cryptocurrency hacks.

In a statement on October 20, Binance said that it has been strengthening its legal compliance and risk operations in the past year. The exchange has increased its department headcount by 145% and has dedicated one-fifth of the company’s total workforce to those functions.

Binance lost over $100 million after hackers hacked its blockchain network, Binance Smart Chain. Binance also got hit in 2019, as thieves nabbed $40 million of bitcoin, along with two-factor user codes and API tokens. The company said it had suspended transactions temporarily causing tension in the pockets of investors in both hacks. With the “most feared man on wall street” as the head of the investigation unit, hacks are set to halt.

Who is Kang

Known simply as B.J. to lawyers and others who have worked with him, Kang, who is Korean-American, once joked that he prefers using initials because his full name is too hard for most people to pronounce.

Kang is known for the profile investigations he has been photographed arresting Bernie Madoff, who was found guilty of running the largest Ponzi scheme to date, and Raj Rajaratnam, a former hedge fund manager found guilty of insider trading.

It was Kang, too, who signed most of the court applications seeking permission to place wiretaps on phones used by Rajaratnam and several other defendants, said people familiar with the investigation.

Additionally, Kang investigated allegations of trading irregularities at SAC two years ago, though the inquiry concluded with no charges being filed against the firm. Cohen’s firm SAC stands at the pinnacle of the $1.5 trillion hedge fund industry.