U.S. probing Binance over possible Iran sanctions violations, source says

Open this photo in gallery:Binance founder Changpeng Zhao attends the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong in August. He pleaded guilty to breaking U.S. anti-money laundering laws in 2023 as part of a larger settlement with Binance.Tyrone Siu/ReutersU.S. prosecutors are investigating Binance in connection to U.S. sanctions on Iran and trading activity on its platform, a source with knowledge of the matter said.The investigation is being led by federal prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan and with the Justice Department’s criminal division in Washington, the source said. Bloomberg News, which earlier reported the probe, said investigators are scrutinizing whether Binance knowingly allowed the trading that violated the sanctions.Spokespeople for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Justice Department’s criminal division declined to comment. Binance said in a statement it has a zero-tolerance approach to sanctions violations.“We fully cooperate with law enforcement, and we remain committed to rooting out and shutting down bad actors,” it said.U.S. vows ‘economic D-Day’ as Iran calls sanctions an ‘act of war’The U.S. government has imposed sanctions on firms and individuals it says are helping Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies in the Middle East, intensifying its campaign to isolate Iran economically.Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York sought the forfeiture of millions of dollars in Iranian oil sales it said had been laundered on Binance’s crypto exchange.Binance has faced U.S. scrutiny in the past. In 2023, Binance’s then-chief Changpeng Zhao stepped down and pleaded guilty to breaking U.S. anti-money laundering laws as part of a US$4.3-billion settlement resolving a years-long probe into the world’s largest crypto exchange. President Donald Trump later pardoned the crypto executive.