A top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security committee opened an inquiry on Tuesday into concerns about possible sanctions violations raised by internal investigators at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Citing reports in The New York Times and two other outlets, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said he was examining the flow of $1.7 billion in crypto from Binance accounts to entities tied to Iran. In a letter to Binance’s co-chief executive Richard Teng, Mr. Blumenthal asked for records about the company’s dealings with two Hong Kong entities identified by the exchange’s investigators as the origin of the transfers to Iran.
“Binance appears to have ignored warnings and recommendations to prevent Iranian money laundering schemes on its cryptocurrency exchange,” Mr. Blumenthal wrote.
In 2023, Binance pleaded guilty to violating anti-money-laundering laws and allowing customers in countries under sanctions, including Iran, to transact on the platform, where people can convert traditional currencies into digital coins. The company agreed to pay $4.3 billion in penalties and leave the U.S. market. Its founder, Changpeng Zhao, served four months in prison for his role in the crimes.
Under President Trump, Binance’s fortunes have transformed. Mr. Trump issued a pardon to Mr. Zhao in October, which could help pave the way for Binance to return to the United States. Binance also has a close business relationship with World Liberty Financial, the crypto company founded by Mr. Trump and his sons.
Since its guilty plea, Binance has pledged to police its platform for money laundering and sanctions violations.
Last year, a group of Binance investigators uncovered $1.7 billion in transactions that flowed from accounts on the exchange to Iranian entities with links to terror groups, The Times reported on Monday. One of those accounts belonged to a Hong Kong business called Blessed Trust that served as a Binance vendor.
After raising concerns about the transactions with senior Binance executives, the investigators were suspended or fired.
Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
In a previous statement to The Times, a Binance spokeswoman said that, in the company’s own review, it did not find evidence of sanctions violations. She said Binance removed the accounts linked to the Iranian transactions, and stopped working with Blessed Trust in January.
None of the employees were disciplined for raising compliance concerns, the spokeswoman said.
In the letter to Mr. Teng on Tuesday, Mr. Blumenthal asked Binance to hand over records about “the suspension and dismissal of compliance staff and investigators” involved in the Iran investigation.
David Yaffe-Bellany writes about the crypto industry for The Times from New York. He can be reached at [email protected].
The post Senate Democrat Opens Inquiry Into Iran Transactions on Binance appeared first on New York Times.
