Crypto criminals have cheated investors out of billions of dollars, violated U.S. securities law, and engaged in money laundering. Now the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is admitting that $1.7 billion was moved from two of its cryptocurrency accounts to Iranian entities linked to terrorist organizations. The finding was made by internal investigators at Binance. Moreover, after uncovering the violation of global sanctions, Binance fired or suspended at least four employees engaged in the internal investigation, according to The New York Times.
Binance denies that it acted against its own investigators for uncovering transfers to Iranian-owned accounts.
Binance compliance staffers found that more than $1 billion in crypto was transferred from the holdings of a Hong Kong company called Blessed Trust to Iranian organizations that then passed the funds to crypto wallets controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which the U.S. and other countries have designated as a terrorist group. Other crypto transfers were found to be funding Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen who have attacked U.S. and British ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, disrupting global commerce.
In 2023, Binance pled guilty to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws and agreed to pay a $4.3 billion penalty. The company had allowed Iranian customers to use its crypto exchange, enabling more than one million transactions, valued at nearly $900 million, according to federal investigators. As part of its plea, Binance agreed to strengthen its compliance procedures and touted its “team of hundreds of compliance-supporting personnel, including over 60 personnel with prior law enforcement or regulatory agency experience.”
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was imprisoned for four months in 2024 before President Trump pardoned him.
