US Prosecutors Are Investigating Binance Over Possible Iran Sanctions Violations

U.S. federal prosecutors are investigating whether Binance violated sanctions on Iran by failing to stop certain transactions on its platform, according to Bloomberg Law’s report on the probe. The inquiry is being handled by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, with the Justice Department’s criminal division in Washington also involved, the report said.

The investigation centers on whether Binance knowingly allowed Iran-linked trading activity to proceed, according to the people cited in the report. The transactions under review were not identified publicly, and the scope of the probe remains limited to the exchange’s compliance efforts.

New scrutiny follows earlier Iran-related action

The reported inquiry comes after a separate civil forfeiture complaint seeking more than $61 million in alleged Iranian oil proceeds drew attention to Binance-linked trading activity. That complaint did not accuse Binance itself of wrongdoing, but it added a new layer of pressure around the exchange’s sanctions controls.

Binance has already faced major U.S. enforcement action tied to sanctions compliance. The latest investigation appears to be focused on whether the exchange’s controls were sufficient to block prohibited activity, rather than on a completed civil penalty or charge announced against the company.

Compliance practices are back in focus

For now, the reported case remains an investigation, not a final finding. The distinction matters: prosecutors are examining whether Binance’s compliance teams should have stopped the activity, but public reporting has not shown any new filing against the exchange itself in this matter.

That leaves open the key questions for Binance: what transactions are being examined, how they were routed, and whether investigators believe the exchange had enough information to intervene. Those details have not been publicly laid out.