Recently there has been inaccurate reporting about our compliance program.
In a legal letter to the newspaper, Binance said it wants the “false information” corrected immediately and the “defamatory imputations retracted."
Binance has said its sanctions exposure is minimal, that it detected and reported suspicious activity, and that it found no evidence of violations in its own review. The company said accounts linked to the reported transactions were removed and that it stopped working with Blessed Trust in January.
Binance and complianceThat hasn't stopped U.S. lawmakers taking an interest. In a letter to Teng dated Tuesday, Blumenthal wrote that “Binance appears to have ignored warnings and recommendations to prevent Iranian money laundering schemes on its cryptocurrency exchange,” allowing $1.7 billion in transfers to Iran.
He cited reports that internal compliance staff found that Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust facilitated laundering and trade with Iranian government entities, and that investigators traced cryptocurrency transfers to wallets associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as well as payments tied to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of oil tankers.
"Binance appears to have ignored clear warning signs, knowingly allowed illicit accounts to operate, and even provided hands-on support to entities engaged in money laundering," Blumenthal wrote. "...The scale of the newly revealed illicit transfers — uncaught until nearly two billion dollars flowed to sanctioned entities — and the unexplained firing of internal investigators call into question Binance’s compliance with American sanctions and banking laws."
