Crypto exchange Binance on Tuesday accused The Wall Street Journal of publishing “false information” in a Monday article that the exchange is allegedly firing employees who investigate funds moving through the exchange to sanctioned entities.
Richard Teng, Binance co-CEO, accused the WSJ of “inaccurate reporting on our compliance program” in an X post. He included a letter to the news organization from the crypto exchange’s New York City lawyer, which said “The Wall Street Journal published defamatory allegations,” despite the exchange’s attempts to “correct the record.” The letter is similar to one Binance addressed to Fortune last week over a similar article, which said the exchange fired investigators who reported concerns about sanctions.
The Journal’s article on Monday said the crypto exchange fired staff investigators who identified $1 billion moving to “a network that funded Iran-backed terrorist groups.” Claiming to have Binance documents and statements from people familiar with Binance operations, the report said the crypto exchange dismantled the $1 billion personnel investigation.
Binance claims staff were disciplined
The Journal article includes a statement from a Binance spokeswoman saying the investigators resigned and denied they were fired or suspended for raising compliance concerns.
“Documents, foreign law enforcement officials and people familiar with Binance’s operations said the same conduct that violated the sanctions and anti-money laundering laws has persisted at the exchange,” the Journal article said, referring to Binance’s 2023 settlement with the US Department of Justice and other authorities in which the exchange and the founder of the money exchange violated Zpenhago. money laundering legislation..
The news report also mentions another $1.7 billion in 2024 and 2025 that was transferred from Binance-registered Chinese customers to Iran-backed groups, including Yemen’s Houthi militants. The New York Times article, also published on February 23, claims the same information.
Both influential US newspapers said the four people “fired” by Binance, who worked in compliance and market oversight roles, were dismissed after the crypto exchange concluded they had not sufficiently escalated red flags related to suspicious trading activity and potential policy violations.
A Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk that the exchange conducted an “internal review and found no evidence of violations of applicable sanctions laws or regulations related to the described transactions.”
The spokesman, who said no investigator was fired for raising compliance issues or potential sanctions, said suspicious activity was detected and reported, which is “evidence that our controls are working, not the other way around.”
Rachel Conlan, another spokeswoman, told the Times that there is an ongoing investigation and that a full report will be sent to the US Department of Justice on February 25.
Binance said in a blog post on Sunday that its “sanctions-related exposure is minimal.”
“Recent reporting on our top-level compliance is inaccurate at best. It presents a distorted, muddled account that relies on false claims by disgruntled former employees. This incomplete and flawed view reflects a lack of understanding of general compliance review processes for crypto exchanges,” the blog post, which was published ahead of the Wall Street Journal’s report, said.
