Who is George Canellos, the lawyer hired by Binance.US?

This article is written by FYJ, BlockBeats.

On June 12th, court documents show that Binance.US has hired four lawyers from the well-known New York-based law firm Milbank, including George Canellos, the global head of Milbank's litigation and arbitration group and a partner in the firm's New York office.

Previously, John Reed Stark, former head of the SEC Internet Enforcement Office, speculated on Twitter that the US Department of Justice may file a criminal indictment related to Binance. He stated that the complaints from the CFTC and SEC read more like criminal indictments, filled with allegations of fraud, deception, obstruction of justice, and money laundering, and believed that neither the CFTC nor the SEC cases focused on money laundering. "This may be a space reserved by the US Department of Justice for criminal lawsuits related to Binance."

Later that day, the name of George Canellos appeared and attracted attention from all sides. John Reed Stark immediately believed that Binance's hiring of George Canellos was evidence of its previous prediction that Binance was preparing for possible criminal litigation. Bloomberg also pointed out that he has a background in both criminal and bankruptcy cases. Regardless of how each party interprets it, George Canellos has become an important figure for Binance in this lawsuit.

Entrusted by Binance, who is George Canellos?

George Canellos began his career in the litigation department of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a law firm known for its corporate law. During his tenure, Canellos primarily handled acquisition disputes and securities litigation. In 1994, he joined the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York and held multiple positions, leading the prosecution of several high-profile cases. As head of the Major Crimes Unit, he oversaw Assistant U.S. Attorneys investigating and prosecuting large-scale financial crimes. As a senior trial lawyer for the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, he led numerous prosecutions of individuals and companies for accounting fraud, investment advisory fraud, insider trading, and other violations of federal securities laws.

During his four and a half years at the SEC, Canellos served as Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Enforcement Division, ultimately becoming Co-Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. During his tenure, Canellos oversaw the civil enforcement work of approximately 1,300 SEC personnel across 12 offices throughout the United States, including investigations, prosecutions, and trials.

During his time at the SEC, Canellos oversaw many landmark enforcement cases, most notably the two critical insider trading cases in US history.

The first case was once known as the "largest insider trading case in Wall Street history" involving Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of hedge fund firm Galleon Group. Rajaratnam manipulated a complex network of high-level insiders from 2003 to 2009 and used leaked company secrets for insider trading, making a total of $63.8 million in illegal profits. Rajaratnam was eventually found guilty of 14 counts of fraud, sentenced to 11 years in prison, and had all his illegal gains confiscated. In this case, more than just Rajaratnam were targeted by the SEC and the US Department of Justice, with a total of 21 people arrested and pleading guilty.

Another well-known case occurred in 2013, in which Canellos participated in the investigation of insider trading at hedge fund SAC Capital. SAC Capital founder Steven Cohen ultimately paid a whopping $600 million fine to the SEC, avoiding civil litigation that could have dragged on for two to three years, and paid $1.2 billion in fines to the US Department of Justice to avoid prosecution on five counts of securities fraud. Mathew Martoma, the portfolio manager who directly operated the insider trading fund, was sentenced to nine years in prison on September 8, 2014. In addition, SAC Capital was ordered by the court to return all external client funds it managed, and Cohen's subsequent comeback relied on the family office Point72, effectively exiting the hedge fund industry since the case. Prior to this, Steven Cohen was known as the "new king of Wall Street hedge funds."

In these cases and others, Canellos has worked closely with senior leaders from the US Department of Justice, FINRA, CFTC, state attorneys general, and the UK Financial Conduct Authority, as well as financial market regulators in Europe and Asia. In addition, Canellos served as co-chair of the RMBS Working Group, an interagency financial fraud task force established by the Obama administration in 2009.

"Canellos has a rare and very special background combination - having served as a SEC prosecutor and a Department of Justice prosecutor, like Liam Neeson combined with Perry Mason (the genius lawyer in the famous detective novel series by American author Erle Stanley Gardner)," said John Reed Stark, former head of the SEC Internet Enforcement Office, in a tweet.

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