George Canellos currently leads a team of attorneys specializing in litigation and arbitration. Previously, he spent four and a half years as director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and oversaw major cases. Canellos billionaire Raj Rajaratnam’s case is considered one of the largest insider trading cases in U.S. history.
Former federal prosecutor Adam Fee and bankruptcy expert Andrew Leblanc joined Canellos’ team to work on the SEC lawsuit against Binance.
Last week, the SEC accused the largest cryptocurrency exchange and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, of creating a “deceptive network,” inflating trading volume, diverting customer assets and trading in unregistered securities. Binance is determined to stand up to the U.S. regulator: the exchange is ready to spend $1 billion to fight the SEC;
Binance’s lawyers recently provided information that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler offered himself as an advisor to the cryptocurrency exchange in 2019. Gensler was appointed head of the SEC in 2021 by President Joe Biden, and in 2023 the official came down hard on the crypto industry, suing numerous companies for allegedly selling unregistered securities.