U.S. federal prosecutors are investigating whether Binance violated sanctions on Iran by not halting specific trading activities on its platform, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan is responsible for the investigation into the world's largest crypto exchange's compliance efforts, according to the people, who asked not to be identified. The Department of Justice's criminal division in Washington, D.C. is collaborating with the investigation aimed at discovering whether Binance allowed trading to proceed despite being aware that it violated sanctions laws, one of the people said.
"We maintain a zero-tolerance policy for sanctions violations," a Binance spokesperson said by email. "We fully cooperate with law enforcement, and we remain committed to rooting out and shutting down bad actors." The Justice Department and Manhattan's attorney's office did not immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for comment.
Background
- Binance pleaded guilty to banking compliance violations in 2023, agreeing to pay $4.3 billion in fines.
- The company said in a February blog post that more than 1,500 people, about 25% of its global headcount, worked on compliance.
- In March, Binance filed a defamation lawsuit against Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, after a report claimed the DOJ was investigating whether Iran used the platform to move funds in violation of U.S. sanctions.
- Binance co-CEO Richard Teng accused the Wall Street Journal of "inaccurate reporting about our compliance program" at the time.
- In April, the New York Times reported that Binance made it more difficult for law enforcement officials in several countries to obtain user information.
- U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, initiated a probe in February into alleged sanctions violations at Binance totaling $1.7 billion; Binance said it found no evidence to support the accusations.
Binance has continuously affirmed it has never permitted transactions with sanctioned individuals and has pledged to continue cooperation with authorities.
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