U.S. federal prosecutors are investigating whether Binance knowingly allowed trading that violated American sanctions on Iran, opening another examination of the exchange’s compliance controls after its 2023 criminal resolution. The inquiry is being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, with the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in Washington also participating, according to Bloomberg reporting published on September 22. An investigation does not establish wrongdoing and can conclude without criminal charges.
The investigation focuses on whether Binance failed to stop prohibited Iran-related trading and, critically, whether the company knew such activity was occurring. That knowledge question distinguishes the reported criminal inquiry from simply identifying transactions that eventually reached sanctioned entities. Binance told Reuters that it maintains zero tolerance for sanctions violations, cooperates with law enforcement and remains committed to removing bad actors, but the statement did not directly confirm or address the reported investigation.
Prosecutors Examine Binance’s Compliance Controls
The new scrutiny follows allegations raised earlier in 2026 concerning two companies, Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale. Internal investigators reportedly identified approximately $1.7 billion flowing from accounts associated with the firms toward entities linked to Iran. Binance disputes that characterization, saying the $1.7 billion did not represent direct transfers from its platform to Iranian entities and that its own tracing found substantially smaller indirect exposure. The exchange also denies that employees were dismissed for raising the compliance concerns.
Those allegations now sit alongside a separate federal forfeiture case filed in September. Manhattan prosecutors are seeking approximately $61 million in cryptocurrency allegedly derived from black-market Iranian oil sales and say Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale used Binance accounts within the broader laundering network. The forfeiture complaint targets the cryptocurrency itself and does not accuse Binance of wrongdoing, making it legally distinct from the newly reported investigation into the exchange’s own conduct.
Binance’s prior enforcement history creates an important baseline. In November 2023, the exchange pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act, money-transmission and International Emergency Economic Powers Act violations and agreed to a $4.316 billion criminal penalty and forfeiture package. The DOJ said Binance had willfully allowed more than $898 million in trades between U.S. users and users ordinarily resident in Iran from 2018 through May 2022. OFAC separately imposed a $968.6 million settlement covering more than 1.66 million apparent sanctions violations.
New Probe Tests Post-Settlement Compliance
The current inquiry is significant because it concerns activity after Binance agreed to strengthen its AML and sanctions controls under federal oversight. Prosecutors are effectively examining whether the compliance systems established after the 2023 resolution prevented or appropriately escalated subsequent Iran-linked activity. Public reporting has also focused on how internal warnings were handled, although Binance maintains that its investigations continued, suspicious accounts were removed and law enforcement was notified.
The $850 million figure circulating separately should not be folded into the same transaction total. A June Senate inquiry cited reports that Iranian financier Babak Zanjani had coordinated roughly $850 million in transactions over two years as part of a broader sanctions-evasion network. That allegation represents a separate factual strand from the $1.7 billion Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale analysis and from the amount currently being examined by Manhattan prosecutors, which Bloomberg has not publicly quantified.
The next concrete milestone will be whether the Justice Department reaches a charging decision, closes the investigation without charges or produces additional court filings that clarify the transactions and compliance decisions under review. For now, the confirmed development is a reported federal criminal investigation into whether Binance knowingly permitted sanctions-prohibited Iran-related trading, not a finding that the exchange committed a new violation after its 2023 settlement.
