Crypto exchange Binance on Tuesday accused the Wall Street Journal of publishing “false information” in a Monday article about the exchange allegedly firing employees investigating funds flowing through the exchange to sanctioned entities.
Richard Teng, co-CEO of Binance, accused the WSJ of “inaccurate reporting about our compliance program” in an The letter is similar to one Binance sent to Fortune last week over a similar article that said the exchange had fired investigators who reported sanctions issues.
The Journal article published Monday said the cryptocurrency exchange fired investigators who identified $1 billion transferred to “a network financing Iranian-backed terrorist groups.” The report claimed to have documents from Binance and statements from people familiar with Binance’s operations, claiming that the crypto exchange dismantled the staff investigation into the $1 billion.
Binance says staff were disciplined
The Journal article includes a statement from a Binance spokeswoman saying the investigators resigned and denied being fired or suspended for raising compliance issues.
“Documents, foreign law enforcement officials and people familiar with Binance’s operations said the same conduct that violated sanctions and anti-money laundering laws persisted at the exchange,” the Journal article said, referring to Binance’s 2023 settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and other authorities, in which the exchange and its founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao admitted to violating federal money laundering laws money.
The report also mentions an additional $1.7 billion in 2024 and 2025 that was transferred from Chinese customers registered at Binance to Iranian-backed groups, including Yemen’s Houthi militants. The New York Times article, also published on February 23, contains the same information.
The two influential US newspapers said the four people “fired” by Binance, who worked in compliance and market monitoring roles, were fired after the crypto exchange concluded they failed to adequately report red flags related to suspicious trading activities and potential policy violations.
A Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk that the exchange conducted an “internal review and found no evidence of violations of applicable sanctions laws or regulations related to the transactions described.”
However, the spokesperson, who said no investigators had been fired for raising compliance issues or potential sanctions, said suspicious activity had been detected and reported, which is “proof that our controls are working, not the other way around.”
Rachel Conlan, another spokeswoman, told the Times that an investigation was ongoing and a full report would be sent to the U.S. Department of Justice on February 25.
Binance said in a blog post on Sunday that its “sanctions exposure is minimal.”
“Recent reports on our high-level compliance are, at best, inaccurate. They present a distorted and confusing account that relies on false statements from disgruntled former employees. This incomplete and erroneous view reflects a lack of understanding of general compliance monitoring processes for crypto exchanges,” the blog post, published ahead of the Wall Street Journal report.
