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A Sept. 22 <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-22/doj-probing-binance-over-potential-iran-sanctions-violations?srnd=phx-crypto” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>report by Bloomberg, cited by Reuters, said federal prosecutors are looking into whether Binance knowingly allowed Iran to trade in violation of sanctions.
The inquiry follows a criminal settlement of $4.3 billion the crypto exchange had reached with U.S. law enforcement almost three years prior for sanctions, anti-money-laundering and money-transmission violations.
According to reports, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in Washington have opened a criminal investigation into Binance’s compliance with regulations and whether it knowingly handled transactions that it should have prevented from occurring.
Reuters could not independently verify the Bloomberg report about the probe, while the Justice Department declined comment on the report.
Binance said it has a zero-tolerance policy with respect to financial sanctions compliance and works with law enforcement. The company has said that its know-your-customer policy prohibits persons resident or located in Iran from accessing Binance.com. It has disputed the above reports, also claiming that it finds no evidence of Iranian involvement.
The case was reopened after another civil forfeiture complaint had been filed on September 14 with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking the forfeiture of $61 million in USDT▼$0.9996, allegedly tied to sales of sanctioned Iranian crude oil and petroleum products.
Authorities say the proceeds were to be shared with the Iranian government and military organizations, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
According to the complaint, Chinese companies Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale used Binance trading accounts to deal with proceeds of the sale of Iranian oil. According to prosecutors, the network laundered over $1.5 billion in proceeds from illegal oil sales.
The forfeiture complaint is focused on the cryptocurrency held in the identified addresses, and does not allege any wrongdoing by Binance. The government also noted that the allegations in a civil forfeiture complaint are unproven absent a court entering judgment in its favor.
Binance said it had been contacted by law enforcement in April 2025 regarding transactions involving Hexa Whale and other addresses designated for terrorism financing, that it had provided KYC and transaction information in June, and that it had delisted it from Binance.com in August. Binance said Blessed Trust underwent
The importance of the investigation was heightened by the fact that Binance admitted in 2023 to failing to put controls in place to prevent U.S. customers from trading with users in jurisdictions subject to U.S. sanctions, according to the Justice Department.
Between January 2018 and May 2022, the prosecutors say that Binance caused more than $898 million to be traded between U.S. users and users ordinarily resident in Iran.
Binance agreed to pay a fine of $4.316 billion as part of the 2023 resolution; have a three-year compliance monitor, and upgrade its anti-money laundering and sanctions programs. This reported probe puts those post-settlement compliance efforts under new federal scrutiny again.
Source: <a href="https://bitcoinfoundation.org/news/crypto-exchanges/binance-faces-fresh-u-s-iran-sanctions-probe-as-prosecutors-scrutinize-crypto-trades/” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener”>bitcoinfoundation.org