Binance, a major crypto-exchange, challenged the authenticity of a report that stated that one of its regional head had agreed to provide Russia’s financial Intel unit customer data possibly related to anti-corruption donations and anti-Putin activist Alexei Navalny.

Reuters reportedGleb Kstarev (Binance’s Eastern Europe & Russia Head) met Friday with Russian Rosfinmonitoring representatives. Rosfinmonitoring is a financial surveillance service that links to Russia’s Federal Security Service or FSB. The meeting took place in April 2021. Kostarev reportedly agreed to a request from the government body to turn over certain user data — including names and addresses — later telling an associate he didn’t have “much of a choice” in the matter. Rosfinmonitoring received client data from an unnamed cryptocurrency exchange, but they refused to give it to Rosfinmonitoring because of concerns over how this information could be used and its ties with the FSB.