Wall Street · Iran · The Block
Binance disputes latest WSJ report on alleged Iran-linked transactions
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The Wall Street Journal reported that Iranian financier Babak Zanjani allegedly used Binance as part of a payment network tied to Iranian regime-linked financing activity that made roughly $850 million in transactions over two years, largely through a single trading account that remained open as recently as January.
Key facts
- Binance CEO Richard Teng pushed back on X, calling the WSJ's reporting "fundamentally inaccurate
- The report lands as Binance's defamation lawsuit against the WSJ over its February reporting on the same subject remains active
- The DOJ has also been investigating whether Iran used Binance to evade U.S. sanctions
- Teng said the transactions referenced by the WSJ occurred before the individuals involved were sanctioned, that Binance had proactively investigated the activity before the WSJ made contact
Summary
The network was run by Zanjani, an Iranian national who describes himself as an "antisanction" operator, according to the report, citing internal Binance compliance findings. Zanjani's allies, including a sister, a romantic partner, and a director of his company, ran additional accounts accessed from the same devices, a pattern Binance's own investigators flagged, . Binance CEO Richard Teng pushed back on X, calling the WSJ's reporting "fundamentally inaccurate. Teng said the transactions referenced by the WSJ occurred before the individuals involved were sanctioned, that Binance had proactively investigated the activity before the WSJ made contact, and that the exchange had provided those facts to the newspaper before publication.