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Casablanca – Binance on Tuesday rejected allegations published by The Wall Street Journal that it dismissed investigators who had raised concerns about transactions allegedly linked to sanctioned Iranian entities, calling the reporting inaccurate and defamatory.
The Journal reported that internal investigators at the crypto exchange had identified roughly $1 billion in transactions tied to a network said to be funding Iran-backed groups.
The article cited company documents and people familiar with Binance’s operations, saying the investigation into the transactions was later dismantled. Similar claims were published by The New York Times and Fortune, which reported that compliance staff were dismissed after escalating sanctions-related concerns.
Binance disputed those accounts. In a public statement and blog post, the company said no employee was terminated for raising compliance issues.
It stated that certain staff members departed following an internal review that found breaches of data-protection and confidentiality guidelines. The exchange said its compliance decisions are independent and based on established procedures.
Chief Executive Richard Teng accused the Journal of publishing false information and said the company had attempted to correct the record before publication.
Binance said it conducted an internal review of the transactions described in the reports and found no evidence of violations of applicable sanctions laws.
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The exchange acknowledged that suspicious activity had been detected and reported, describing that as evidence its monitoring systems were functioning as intended. It said accounts identified during the review were offboarded and relevant information was shared with appropriate authorities.
A spokesperson told US media outlets that a full report would be submitted to the Department of Justice.
The reports referenced Binance’s 2023 settlement with US authorities over anti-money-laundering violations, in which founder Changpeng Zhao admitted to breaching federal money laundering laws.
The new allegations focus on transactions in 2024 and 2025 that were said to involve funds moving through intermediary wallets before reaching entities linked to Iran-backed groups.
In its blog post, Binance said its sanctions-related exposure as a share of total trading volume fell from 0.284% in January 2024 to 0.009% in July 2025, citing independent industry data.
The company said it employs more than 1,500 people in compliance-related roles and maintains licenses or registrations in 20 jurisdictions.
Binance said its compliance framework remains effective and that recent reporting mischaracterized the scope and outcome of its internal investigations.
