Sanctioned Iranian businessman helped regime skirt sanctions via the Binance crypto exchange — report

Iranian tycoon Babak Zanjani, whom the US has sanctioned for processing funds for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, carried out cryptocurrency transactions worth some $850 million on behalf of the regime on the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The transactions are said to have taken place over two years, with most of them originating from a single trading account that was active for at least 15 months as of January.

The transactions, comprising both deposits and withdrawals, went through despite repeated red flags from Binance’s internal investigators, and led to an estimated $425 million being funneled into the Iranian military, the Journal says, citing Binance documents, law enforcement officials and other sources familiar with the activity.

According to the report, the transactions were carried out through a network of accounts operated from the same devices by Zanjani and associates, including his sister, romantic partner and a director of one of Zanjani’s companies.

The same network is said to have facilitated the transfer via Binance of over $1.7 billion that was flagged internally last November, “moving from Chinese clients into digital wallets used by Iran to finance its proxies.” The Journal reported earlier this year that Binance dismantled the team investigating that cash flow.

According to the Journal, foreign law-enforcement officials tracking billions of dollars flowing through Binance accounts to Iranian entities associated with the regime have identified transactions “as recently as this month.”

Binance, which has sued the Journal over its past reporting, says the transactions reportedly linked to Zanjani “have nothing to do” with the crypto platform, and that “Binance has zero-tolerance for illicit activity on its platform.”

In 2023, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in the US to violating money-laundering and sanctions laws. US President Donald Trump pardoned him last year. Binance is a chief backer of the Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial.