Binance Holdings Ltd. has hired M. Kendall Day, a former U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor, to represent Binance in a lawsuit initiated by the SEC, according to a court filing Thursday. M. Kendall Day served for 15 years as an Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, according to his profile on the law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher's website. He also heads the Department of Justice's Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Unit (MLARS). In this role, Day had national oversight of the DOJ's money laundering investigations, including any money laundering charges, deferred prosecution agreements and non-prosecution agreements involving financial institutions.

As early as last year, in a Reuters article reporting that the U.S. Department of Justice had investigated Binance for four years, it was mentioned that Binance hired Kendall Day to interface with the Justice Department, and Day also met with Justice Department officials in Washington.

In recent weeks, Binance and Binance.US have been bolstering their legal corps in response to the SEC lawsuit. Prior to the news on June 13, George Canellos, a partner in Milbank's New York office, announced to serve as its legal counsel. Canellos is a former co-head of the SEC's Enforcement Division and is currently global head of the litigation and arbitration team at law firm Milbank.