Binance Employees Find $1.7 Billion Sent to Iranian Entities

A group of internal investigators at Binance found last year that people in Iran had gained access to more than 1,500 accounts and that about $1.7 billion had flowed from two Binance accounts to Iranian entities with links to terrorist groups. One of those accounts belonged to a Binance vendor.

They reported the transactions to top executives, and within weeks at least four employees involved in the investigation were fired or suspended; the company cited “violations of company protocol” related to the handling of client data. Binance pleaded guilty in 2023 to breaking anti-money-laundering laws and pledged to crack down on bad actors, hiring more than 60 employees with law enforcement or regulatory experience.

Internal warnings about the Iranian transactions surfaced months before President Trump granted a pardon to Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, who had served four months in federal prison in 2024. Investigators traced routes through vendors and intermediary wallets.

Iran

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