Binance faces US scrutiny over possible Iran sanctions violations, source says

Binance logo and stock graph are displayed in this illustration taken, June 28, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

Sept 22 (Reuters) - US prosecutors ⁠are investigating Binance in connection to US sanctions on Iran ⁠and trading activity on its platform, a source with knowledge ‌of the matter said.

The investigation is being led by federal prosecutors with the US attorney's office in Manhattan and with the Justice Department's criminal division in Washington, the ​source said. Bloomberg News, which earlier reported ⁠the probe, said investigators are ⁠scrutinizing whether Binance knowingly allowed the trading that violated the sanctions.

Spokespeople for ⁠the ‌USAttorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Justice Department's criminal division declined to comment. Binance ⁠said in a statement it has a zero-tolerance approach ​to sanctions violations.

"We ‌fully cooperate with law enforcement, and we remain committed to rooting ⁠out and ​shutting down bad actors," it said.

The US government has imposed sanctions on firms and individuals it says are helping Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies in ⁠the Middle East, intensifying its campaign to ​isolate Iran economically.

Earlier this month, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York sought the forfeiture of millions of dollars in ⁠Iranian oil sales it said had been laundered on Binance's crypto exchange.

Binance has faced US scrutiny in the past. In 2023,Binance's then-chief Changpeng Zhao stepped down and pleaded guilty to breakingUS anti-money laundering laws ​as part of a $4.3 billion settlement resolving a ⁠years-long probe into the world's largest crypto exchange. President Donald Trump later ​pardoned the crypto executive.

(Reporting by Chris Prentice ‌in new York; Additional reporting by ​Fabiola Arámburo in Mexico City and Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Chris Reese)

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这张插图拍摄于2021年6月28日，展示了币安的标志和股价走势图。路透社/Dado Ruvic/插图

9月22日（路透社）——一位知情人士透露，美国检察官正在调查币安，原因是其与美国对伊朗的制裁以及币安平台上的交易活动有关。

消息人士称，此次调查由曼哈顿美国检察官办公室和华盛顿司法部刑事司的联邦检察官共同牵头。此前报道过此案的彭博新闻社称，调查人员正在仔细审查币安是否明知故犯地允许了违反制裁规定的交易。

美国纽约南区检察官办公室和司法部刑事司的发言人均拒绝置评。币安在一份声明中表示，公司对违反制裁的行为采取零容忍态度。

声明称：“我们将全力配合执法部门，并将继续致力于铲除和取缔不法分子。”

美国政府对一些公司和个人实施了制裁，称他们帮助真主党和其他伊朗在中东的代理人，从而加大了在经济上孤立伊朗的力度。

本月初，纽约南区联邦检察官办公室寻求没收数百万美元的伊朗石油销售款项，称这些款项通过币安加密货币交易所洗钱。

币安过去曾受到美国方面的审查。2023年，币安时任首席执行官赵长鹏辞职，并承认违反美国反洗钱法，作为一项43亿美元的和解协议的一部分，结束了对这家全球最大加密货币交易所长达数年的调查。美国总统唐纳德·特朗普后来赦免了这位加密货币高管。

（纽约 Chris Prentice 报道；墨西哥城 Fabiola Arámburo 和班加罗尔 Rajveer Singh Pardesi 补充报道；Alan Barona、Sherry Jacob-Phillips 和 Chris Reese 编辑）

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