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

The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Fortune each reported that investigators had been fto spell aft identifying sanctions-violating transactions.

Feb 24, 2026, 8:42 p.m.

Crypto speech Binance accused The Wall Street Journal Tuesday of publishing "false information" successful a Monday nonfiction astir the speech allegedly firing employees investigating funds moving done the speech to sanctioned entities.

Richard Teng, Binance co-CEO, accused the WSJ of "inaccurate reporting astir our compliance program” in an X post. He included a missive to the quality enactment from the crypto exchange’s counsel successful New York City, which said “The Wall Street Journal published defamatory claims,” contempt the exchange's attempts to “set the grounds straight.” The missive is akin to 1 Binance directed to Fortune past week implicit a akin nonfiction which said the speech fired investigators who reported sanctions concerns.

The Journal's article connected Monday said the crypto exchanged fired unit investigators who identified $1 cardinal that moved to "a web backing Iran-backed panic groups.". The study claimed to person Binance documents and statements from radical acquainted with Binance operations, saying that the crypto speech dismantled the unit probe into the $1 billion..

Binance claims unit were disciplined

The Journal nonfiction includes a connection from a Binance spokeswoman saying the investigators resigned and denied they were fired oregon suspended for raising compliance concerns.

“Documents, overseas law-enforcement officials and the radical acquainted with Binance’s operations said the aforesaid behaviour that broke the sanctions and anti-money-laundering laws has persisted astatine the exchange,” the Journal nonfiction said, referring to Binance's 2023 colony with the U.S. Department of Justice and different authorities, successful which the speech and laminitis Changpeng "CZ" Zhao admitted to violating national wealth laundering statutes..

The quality study besides mentions $1.7 cardinal much successful 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 besides published connected Feb. 23 alleges the aforesaid information.

Both influential U.S. newspapers said the 4 individuals “fired” by Binance, who worked successful compliance and marketplace oversight roles, were dismissed aft the crypto speech concluded they had failed to adequately escalate reddish flags related to suspicious trading enactment and imaginable argumentation violations.

A Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk the speech conducted an “internal reappraisal and did not find grounds of violations of applicable sanctions laws oregon regulations related to the transactions described.”

However, the spokesperson, who stated nary researcher was dismissed for raising compliance oregon imaginable sanctions issues, said suspicious enactment was detected and reported, which is “evidence that our controls are working, not the opposite.”

Rachel Conlan, different spokesperson, told the Times, determination is an ongoing probe and that a afloat study volition beryllium sent to the U.S. Justice Department connected Feb. 25.

Binance said successful a blog post connected Sunday that its "sanctions-related vulnerability is minimal."

"Recent reporting connected our top-tier compliance is, astatine best, inaccurate. It presents a distorted, jumbled relationship that relies connected mendacious claims by disgruntled erstwhile employees. This incomplete and flawed viewpoint reflects a deficiency of knowing of wide compliance power processes for crypto exchanges," the blog post, which was published anterior to the Wall Street Journal's report.

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