After Donald Trump granted a pardon to the founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, last October, employees of the company disclosed that the crypto exchange might have provided funding amounting to billions of dollars to Iranian entities.
The revelation was made by a team of internal investigators at Binance, who allegedly discovered that individuals in Iran had accessed over 1,500 accounts on the cryptocurrency platform.
It is alleged that two of these accounts transferred $1.7 billion to groups supported by Iran, including the Houthi militants in Yemen, during the years 2024 and 2025.
According to the company’s investigators, they informed Binance’s executives about these transactions, but were subsequently subjected to disciplinary actions.
Reports indicate that at least four employees faced termination or suspension due to accusations of “violating company protocol” concerning the management of client data.
A spokesperson for Binance stated that the company did not breach sanctions laws regarding the transactions mentioned including crypto exchange.
The spokesperson further denied claims that internal investigators were terminated for bringing the issue to light.
“No investigator was dismissed for raising compliance concerns or for reporting potential sanctions issues,” the statement claims.
Zhao established Binance in 2017, and it subsequently became the largest cryptocurrency exchange globally.
Founder of Binance steps down from the company
In 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and stepped down from his position within Binance.
He received a sentence of four months in prison.
As part of his guilty plea, Zhao consented to pay a fine of $50 million and was prohibited from any future involvement in the business.
In 2023, Binance admitted guilt and consented to internal oversight along with a criminal penalty of approximately $1.81 billion, in addition to a forfeiture order of $2.51 billion to resolve three criminal allegations.
Binance also committed to pursuing individuals who misused its platform for financial dealings including crypto exchange, which involved clients from Iran.
According to sources, the Iranian transactions were uncovered within the company prior to Trump’s pardon.
The organisations that allegedly received the funds include a primary foreign adversary that the Trump administration has purportedly been preparing to target.
