💸 Binance, Iran, and $1.5 billion

Background: in 2023, Binance pleaded guilty to sanctions violations, paid billions in fines, and its founder Changpeng Zhao did four months in prison before Trump pardoned him. Seemed like the end of it.

The DOJ sees it differently. Per The Wall Street Journal, $1.5 billion moved through Binance into Iran, some of it reaching the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Two Hong Kong middlemen sold black-market Iranian oil to Chinese buyers, cycling proceeds through Binance wallets. One of them, Blessed Trust, was an official Binance partner.

Both companies are now banned from the platform. The investigators who found them were fired — "individual circumstances," says Binance.

Classic.

Engadget