Crypto’s biggest exchange fights back against allegations of moving billions of Iran-linked money

Crypto exchange Binance accused The Wall Street Journal Tuesday of publishing “false information” in a Monday article about the exchange allegedly firing employees investigating funds moving through the exchange to sanctioned entities.

Richard Teng, Binance co-CEO, accused the WSJ of “inaccurate reporting about our compliance program” in an X post. He included a letter to the news organization from the crypto exchange’s counsel in New York City, which said “The Wall Street Journal published defamatory claims,” despite the exchange’s attempts to “set the record straight.” The letter is similar to one Binance directed to Fortune last week over a similar article which said the exchange fired investigators who reported sanctions concerns.

The Journal’s article on Monday said the crypto exchanged fired staff investigators who identified $1 billion that moved to “a network funding Iran-backed terror groups.”. The report claimed to have Binance documents and statements from people familiar with Binance operations, saying that the crypto exchange dismantled the staff investigation into the $1 billion..

Binance claims staff were disciplined

The Journal article includes a statement from a Binance spokeswoman saying the investigators resigned and denied they were fired or suspended for raising compliance concerns.

“Documents, foreign law-enforcement officials and the people familiar with Binance’s operations said the same conduct that broke the sanctions and anti-money-laundering laws has persisted at the exchange,” the Journal article said, referring to Binance’s 2023 settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and other authorities, in which the exchange and founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao admitted to violating federal money laundering statutes..

The news report also mentions $1.7 billion more in 2024 and 2025 that were transferred from Binance-registered Chinese clients to Iran-backed groups, including Yemen’s Houthi militants. The New York Times’ article also published on Feb. 23 alleges the same information.

Both influential U.S. newspapers said the four individuals “fired” by Binance, who worked in compliance and market oversight roles, were dismissed after the crypto exchange concluded they had failed to adequately escalate red flags related to suspicious trading activity and potential policy violations.

A Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk the exchange conducted an “internal review and did not find evidence of violations of applicable sanctions laws or regulations related to the transactions described.”

However, the spokesperson, who stated no investigator was dismissed for raising compliance or potential sanctions issues, said suspicious activity was detected and reported, which is “evidence that our controls are working, not the opposite.”

Rachel Conlan, another spokesperson, told the Times, there is an ongoing investigation and that a full report will be sent to the U.S. Justice Department on Feb. 25.

Binance said in a blog post on Sunday that its “sanctions-related exposure is minimal.”

“Recent reporting on our top-tier compliance is, at best, inaccurate. It presents a distorted, jumbled account that relies on false claims by disgruntled former employees. This incomplete and flawed viewpoint reflects a lack of understanding of general compliance control processes for crypto exchanges,” the blog post, which was published prior to the Wall Street Journal’s report.