Crypto trade Binance pushed again in opposition to a latest report by Fortune, rejecting allegations that it enabled sanctions-violating transactions tied to Iran and fired compliance investigators who raised issues.
Fortune reported Friday that inner investigators at Binance found greater than $1 billion in transfers linked to Iranian entities shifting by way of the platform between March 2024 and August 2025. The transactions had been stated to contain Tether’s USDt (USDT) stablecoin on the Tron blockchain.
Citing unidentified sources, the report claimed that not less than 5 investigators, a number of with law-enforcement backgrounds, had been later fired after documenting the exercise. The outlet additionally reported that extra senior compliance employees had departed the corporate in latest months.
Binance disputed the characterization in a proper response. “That is categorically false. No investigator was dismissed for elevating compliance issues or for reporting potential sanctions points as there are not any violations,” the trade wrote in an electronic mail shared by CEO Richard Teng.
Binance denies sanctions violations after inner evaluate
Binance stated it carried out a full inner evaluate with outdoors authorized recommendation and located no proof it had violated relevant sanctions legal guidelines in reference to the referenced exercise. It additionally rejected the suggestion that the trade failed to fulfill its regulatory obligations below ongoing oversight.
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The dispute lands as Binance stays below heightened scrutiny since its 2023 settlement with US authorities through which it agreed to pay $4.3 billion for Anti-Cash Laundering (AML) and sanctions violations. Founder Changpeng Zhao stepped down as CEO and later served a four-month jail sentence. Binance additionally agreed to being monitored and pledged to strengthen compliance controls.
Binance denied claims it’s failing to fulfill regulatory obligations, saying it continues to cooperate below monitoring and oversight necessities. “The article means that Binance is “reneging” on its regulatory obligations. This assertion is fake,” the trade stated.
Binance acknowledged Cointelegraph’s request for remark, however had not responded by publication.
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FT report questions Binance compliance controls
A December report by the Monetary Occasions additionally claimed that Binance allowed a bunch of suspicious accounts to maneuver vital sums by way of the trade even after its US legal settlement in 2023. Inner information reviewed by the publication confirmed 13 such consumer accounts had about $1.7 billion in transactions since 2021, together with about $144 million after the plea settlement.
“We take compliance severely and reject the framing of the Monetary Occasions report,” a Binance spokesperson informed Cointelegraph on the time, including that each one transactions are assessed “based mostly on info obtainable on the time,” and that not one of the wallets referenced had been sanctioned when the exercise referenced occurred.
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