Binance allowed hundreds of millions of dollars to pass through accounts flagged for suspicious activity even after agreeing to strengthen its compliance controls as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with US authorities in 2023, according to an investigation by the Financial Times.
Key Takeaways:
- Binance processed large suspicious transactions after its 2023 US settlement, FT reported.
- Some funds were linked to alleged Iran- and Hizbollah-related networks.
- The findings raise questions about Binance’s post-settlement compliance.
The report, based on internal files reviewed by the newspaper, claimed that accounts with serious red flags continued to trade on the platform well after Binance entered a plea agreement with the US Justice Department in November 2023.
The leaked data spans transactions from 2021 through 2025 and reveals gaps in enforcement despite public commitments to tighter oversight.
FT: Binance Processed $93M From Account Tied to Alleged Terror-Linked Network
Among the cases cited by the FT is an account registered to a resident of a Venezuelan slum that moved roughly $93 million through Binance over four years.
Some of those funds originated from a network later accused by US authorities of covertly transferring money for Iran and Lebanon’s Hizbollah.
Another account, registered to a 25-year-old Venezuelan woman, received more than $177 million in crypto over two years and repeatedly changed its linked bank details, 647 times in just 14 months, cycling through nearly 500 unique accounts across multiple countries.
In total, the FT reviewed data tied to 13 suspicious accounts that collectively handled $1.7 billion in transactions.
About $144 million of that volume occurred after the 2023 settlement, raising questions about the effectiveness of Binance’s post-plea compliance measures.
Stefan Cassella, a former US federal prosecutor, told the newspaper that the activity resembled that of an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
The investigation also uncovered examples of physically impossible login activity that went undetected.
One account linked to a Venezuelan bank employee showed access from Caracas in the afternoon, followed by a login from Osaka, Japan, early the next morning, a sequence suggesting account compromise or coordinated misuse.
Several of the accounts received funds in Tether’s USDT stablecoin from wallets later frozen by Israeli authorities under anti-terrorism laws.
Many of those transfers were traced to wallets connected to Tawfiq Al-Law, a Syrian national accused of moving money for Hizbollah and Iran-backed Houthi groups.
Israel seized related accounts in 2023, and the US Treasury sanctioned Al-Law in 2024.
Binance Defends Compliance Controls Amid FT Scrutiny
Binance told the FT that it maintains strict compliance controls and a zero-tolerance approach to illicit activity, citing systems designed to flag and investigate suspicious transactions.
The findings arrive amid renewed scrutiny of Binance’s governance following President Donald Trump’s pardon of founder Changpeng Zhao in October for anti-money laundering violations.
The pardon, coupled with expanded business ties between the Trump family and Binance-linked entities, has complicated oversight efforts, according to former intelligence officials.
Despite the appointment of independent monitors in 2024, much of the activity reviewed by the FT reportedly occurred after monitoring began.
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