Binance CFO Kaiser Ng Pulls a ‘Keyser Söze’ Nine Days After North Korea Swipes $6.3B

“Hit it and quit it.” - North Korea and Binance’s CFO, respectively

Sooo apparently, the $6.3B wasn’t the only thing walking out of Binance this month.

On Saturday, the world’s biggest crypto exchange said its CFO, Kaiser Ng, is leaving the company… exactly nine days after North Korean hackers pulled off the biggest crypto heist of all time (even Celsius’s CFO waited almost three weeks).

Per co-CEO (and CZ’s baby mama) Yi He: “Kaiser Ng has decided to pursue a new venture after more than five years at Binance, with a transition plan implemented over the last six months. We wish him the best in his next chapter.” Probably just a coincidence…

Of course, Kaiser hasn’t said what the escape plan venture is or when he’s actually out the door. He just went all “and for that reason, I’m out.” For context, his LinkedIn says he started in January 2022, so “more than five years” is generous (*checks notes*… not quite).

Bloomberg also tried reaching Kaiser on LinkedIn and got nothing back. Smart. Friendly reminder, the hack started with a fake job interview. Per Binance, someone posing as a project director at a made-up company hit up one of its engineers on a job-hunting site back in September, and the sh*tshow took it from there.

Oh, and on Oct. 31, the FBI pinned it on TraderTraitor, the same North Korean scam bois behind last year’s $1.5B Bybit job. Kim Jong Un’s sister called the claim “absurd rhetoric and nothing new,” which, she’s half right.

To be fair, funds are (mostly) SAFU. Binance says it’s already covered about 90% of the $6.3B out of SAFU, its emergency fund for users, plus corporate cash, and it’s been reopening withdrawals in phases since Nov. 1. Kaiser’s withdrawal, at least, went through instantly.

It’s just that the founder already started pointing fingers. Over at the Oxford Union, the Club Fed alum himself, CZ, said “basic internal security procedures… were not followed by internal employees.” Ah yes, his classic “seems like a ‘you’ problem” defense.

As for the poor b*stard left holding the bag, incoming CFO Justin Yek was most recently VP of finance at Airwallex, the $11B payments startup, after 10+ years at Morgan Stanley and Citi. Justin says he’s “thrilled to step into the role” and wants Binance to keep scaling “responsibly.”

So yeah, Kaiser quit it, and Justin gets North Korea’s sloppy seconds. Use protection, Justin…

Until next time, friends!

 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.