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According to a report from Bloomberg citing five sources with knowledge of the matter, the national security division of the United States Department of Justice is currently investigating whether Binance permitted Russian customers to access their exchange in violation of U.S. sanctions pertaining to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The heat is on for Binance, as the global exchange faces multiple high-profile investigations. The United States Department of Justice is currently conducting an inquiry into whether the exchange allowed Russian customers to access its platform in violation of U.S. sanctions related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This comes on the heels of a joint investigation in 2021 with the Internal Revenue Service, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also been investigating Binance for its relationship with two companies owned by its founder Changpeng Zhao since early 2022.
Neither Binance nor the Justice Department's spokespeople have responded to immediate requests for comment, according to the report.
Bloomberg's request for comment from the Justice Department was declined.
In response to Bloomberg's inquiry, Binance stated that the company is fully compliant with all financial sanctions, both domestically in the United States and internationally.
In March 2023, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against Binance, accusing the company of knowingly providing unregistered cryptocurrency derivative products to U.S. customers in violation of federal law.
Binance has consistently refuted these allegations, asserting that it has established the largest compliance team in the industry, comprising 700 members who handle approximately 1,300 law enforcement requests on a weekly basis, as stated by the head of compliance, Tigran Gambaryan.
In recent days, Binance has claimed to have figured out how to keep North Koreans off its crypto exchange by kicking "their a** enough that they're actually able to recognize that Binance was not the place for them."
In May 2023, Israel reportedly seized around 190 Binance accounts linked to terrorist organizations, including two accounts associated with ISIS. Despite no clear indication of Binance's cooperation, neither party has explicitly confirmed or denied such cooperation. As Binance is not legally obligated to comply with Israeli laws, the methods used by Israel to seize the accounts remain unclear.
Source Coindesk
