Binance CEO Richard Teng has pushed again in opposition to a brand new Wall Road Journal investigation claiming the alternate processed $850 million in transactions tied to a sanctioned Iranian financier, which ultimately flowed to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In a Friday publish on X, Teng referred to as the reporting “basically inaccurate,” saying that Binance by no means permitted transactions with sanctioned people and that any flagged exercise occurred earlier than these people have been positioned underneath US sanctions. He additionally claimed Binance had investigated the problems earlier than the Journal contacted the corporate, and that information it offered weren’t included within the story.
The Journal’s report, printed on Thursday, recognized Babak Zanjani, who was re-sanctioned by the US in January, because the central determine in a secret crypto fee community that ran $850 million via Binance accounts over two years. Zanjani’s agency Zedcex, together with accounts belonging to his sister, romantic associate and an organization director, all operated from the identical units, per the report.
Supply: Richard Teng
The Journal claimed that Binance’s inner compliance studies flagged the Zedcex account after detecting entry from Tehran in late 2024. The account stayed open for greater than a 12 months, triggering over a dozen additional inner alerts. Binance’s personal investigators beneficial the accounts be shut down and reported to authorities, however the Journal says the accounts remained energetic.
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Binance allowed Iranian funds after settlement: WSJ
Binance pleaded responsible in 2023 to anti-money laundering and sanctions violations and paid a report $4.3 billion superb, pledging to overtake its compliance methods. Nonetheless, based on the Journal, the alleged Iranian fund flows resumed shortly after.
In March, the Journal additionally reported that the Justice Division is now investigating Iran’s use of Binance to evade sanctions within the wake of that responsible plea. Following the report, Binance filed a defamation lawsuit in opposition to the publication, in search of damages and a jury trial. The alternate denied data of any DOJ investigation, telling Cointelegraph it continues to cooperate with regulators and legislation enforcement.
Past Zanjani’s community, the Journal claimed that Iran’s central financial institution moved $107 million in crypto into Binance accounts in 2025, and a overseas law-enforcement company tracked roughly $260 million in direct transactions between Binance accounts and Iranian terrorist financiers throughout 2024 and 2025.
“Binance has zero-tolerance for illicit exercise and has constructed and operates a best-in-class industry-leading compliance program that continues to develop,” Teng wrote on X.
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Binance denies shutting down inner Iran probe
In February, one other Journal report alleged Binance shut down an inner investigation into roughly $1 billion that flowed via the platform to networks linked to Iranian proxy teams. Binance denied dismantling any compliance investigation, saying its inner probe continued and uncovered a classy, multi-jurisdictional sample of monetary exercise throughout Asia, the Center East and past.
The alternate additionally printed a weblog publish addressing what it referred to as false claims, and individually responded to a Senate inquiry in March, denying it facilitated transactions to Iranian entities.
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