Binance handed Russia’s Investigative Committee the total account historical past of a Russian IT specialist final yr, and prosecutors used that information to cost him with financing terrorism over crypto donations despatched to Ukraine, Reuters reported on August 17, citing regulation enforcement paperwork.
The trade has instructed the general public since 2023 that it exited the Russian market solely. The account holder, Yuriy Belenkiy, stays jailed in Moscow awaiting trial.
How Belenkiy’s Information Reached Russian Investigators
Belenkiy, an IT director at electronics distributor DiHouse, was detained at Sheremetyevo Airport in September 2025 on an administrative cost earlier than Russian investigators reclassified the case and charged him below the nation’s terrorism financing statute the next month, in response to Reuters, which reviewed the underlying regulation enforcement paperwork.
Russia’s Investigative Committee requested Belenkiy’s information from Binance in October 2025 after tracing a pockets tackle that exiled journalist Arkady Babchenko had revealed for fundraising.
Binance responded with Belenkiy’s passport scans, account balances, deposit and withdrawal information, Binance Pay transactions, peer-to-peer commerce historical past and login information together with system sort and placement, in response to courtroom supplies reviewed by rights group Pervyi Otdel and reported by iStories.
Investigators allege Belenkiy despatched 15 transfers totaling 1,680.69 USDT, value about 140,000 rubles, to Babchenko’s tackle and Ukraine-linked recipients, together with a gaggle tied to the Azov Brigade and Ukrainian trade Kuna.
Binance instructed Reuters it doesn’t hand over person information and not using a courtroom order, even because the Belenkiy disclosure reveals the trade complying with a normal regulation enforcement e-mail request months earlier.
What This Case Means for Crypto Donors
Binance stated on August 14 that it could start making use of European Union sanctions in opposition to Russia, a transfer our crypto information protection has tracked as extra exchanges face strain over Russia-linked accounts, and the Belenkiy case raises the query of how far that sanctions pledge reaches in follow.
Anybody who has despatched crypto to a Ukraine-linked fundraiser by means of a serious trade ought to deal with this case as a reminder that transaction and login histories don’t stay personal as soon as a authorities requests them.
Why Belenkiy’s Upcoming Trial Might Set a Precedent
Belenkiy’s case is now being ready for trial, in response to Pervyi Otdel, and a conviction would mark one of many first cases the place trade information immediately produced a terrorism financing cost tied to Ukraine donations.
Reuters beforehand reported that Binance’s then-Russia consultant, Gleb Kostarev, mentioned sharing information on Bitcoin donors to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with Russia’s monetary intelligence unit again in 2021, a declare Binance denied on the time.
What this implies for you: A public exit from a rustic is just not the identical as a public promise about how that nation’s information requests get dealt with, so you probably have used a serious trade whereas it nonetheless operated in a sanctioned nation, don’t assume that trade’s later exit erased the information tied to your account.