Eleven U.S. Senators Are Asking the DOJ to Investigate Binance Over Sanctions Violations

A bipartisan coalition of eleven U.S. senators has formally requested that the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department investigate Binance for potential violations of international sanctions and anti-money laundering laws.

The allegations are centering on the facilitation of billions of dollars in transactions to sanctioned entities in Iran and Russia.

The Allegations

The request, led by Senator Mark Warner of Virginia and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, arrives nearly two and a half years after Binance’s landmark $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. authorities in 2023. That settlement was, at the time, one of the largest financial penalties ever imposed on a cryptocurrency company. The senators’ position is that the compliance transformation it was supposed to trigger has not materialized.

The specific allegations are substantial. Reports reviewed by the senators indicate that approximately $1.7 billion in digital assets flowed through Binance to Iranian entities, including groups with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Houthis. Investigators reportedly identified more than 1,500 accounts accessed by users in Iran and found evidence of activity connected to evasion of Russian oil sanctions.

Two elements of the allegations carry particular weight beyond the transaction data itself. First, the senators’ letter claims that internal compliance staff who identified and flagged the suspicious activity were subsequently dismissed or suspended. If accurate, that would indicate a deliberate suppression of compliance function rather than an inadvertent failure of it. Second, law enforcement agencies have reportedly noted that Binance has become less cooperative in providing customer information compared to the period immediately following the 2023 settlement, which represents a measurable regression from the posture the exchange committed to at the time.

The Political Layer

The investigation request lands in complicated political territory. In October 2025, President Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who had served a four-month prison sentence for AML failures stemming from the 2023 case. The pardon drew significant attention at the time. It draws more now.

The senators also raised concerns about Binance’s relationship with World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture backed by the Trump family. Approximately 85% of the project’s USD1 stablecoin is reportedly held in Binance accounts, a concentration that lawmakers characterized as a conflict of interest worth examining in the context of the broader investigation.

The bipartisan composition of the coalition is notable in a political environment where cross-party agreement on anything crypto-related has been difficult to achieve. Eleven senators from both parties co-signing a formal investigation request carries different institutional weight than a partisan letter.

Binance’s Position

Binance has rejected the allegations directly, calling the underlying media reports defamatory and inaccurate. A company spokesperson stated that the exchange has undergone one of the most significant compliance transformations in the industry and that its systems detected and reported the suspicious activity referenced in the reports through normal compliance controls.

That response frames the situation as a functioning compliance system working as intended. The senators’ letter frames the same facts as evidence that the system is not working at all. Both cannot be correct.

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The Deadlines

Two dates now govern how this develops. Senator Richard Blumenthal has set March 6, 2026 as the deadline for Binance to provide internal records, including communications related to entities identified as Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust. The DOJ and Treasury have until March 13, 2026 to report back to the Senate Banking Committee on their progress regarding the requested review.

Whether either deadline produces substantive disclosures will determine whether this remains a political pressure campaign or becomes a formal investigative proceeding.

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