Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Binance knowingly allowed trading that violated U.S. sanctions on Iran, Bloomberg reported on Sept. 22, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters separately confirmed the probe through a source. The inquiry is being run by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York alongside the Justice Department's criminal division in Washington.
Binance said in a statement that it maintains a zero-tolerance policy for sanctions violations, adding: "We fully cooperate with law enforcement, and we remain committed to rooting out and shutting down bad actors."
The probe follows a civil forfeiture action filed by the same Manhattan office on Sept. 14, seeking $61 million in cryptocurrency tied to black-market Iranian oil sales. According to the Justice Department, two Chinese companies, Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, used trading accounts at Binance to launder more than $1.5 billion in oil proceeds that ultimately flowed to the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The complaint names Binance as the platform used but does not charge the exchange with wrongdoing.
Binance CEO Richard Teng responded to the forfeiture filing in a post on X , saying the exchange did not permit transactions involving sanctioned individuals and applies zero tolerance to sanctions violations and illicit activity.
The same two entities have been at the centre of allegations against Binance since February, when Fortune reported that internal investigators had traced more than $1 billion in Tether moving through the exchange to Iran-linked wallets between March 2024 and August 2025, and that at least five of those investigators were later dismissed. Binance told Fortune at the time that, following an internal review and on the advice of legal counsel, it "found no evidence that Binance violated applicable sanctions laws in connection with the activity referenced." Senator Richard Blumenthal opened an inquiry days later, citing reporting that put total transfers to Iranian entities at around $1.7 billion and requesting records on the VIP status granted to Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust.
The stakes are higher for Binance than for a first-time target. In November 2023, the exchange pleaded guilty to violating U.S. anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, agreed to pay $4.3 billion and accepted independent compliance monitors. Co-founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty separately, served four months in prison and was pardoned by President Donald Trump in October 2025. Any finding that sanctions breaches continued after the plea could expose the company to claims it violated the terms of that agreement.
No charges have been filed, and investigations of this kind can run for months or years without resulting in action. The key question is whether prosecutors conclude Binance's compliance failures were knowing, which is the standard Bloomberg reported investigators are examining.
