Dozens of families of the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel by Hamas sued Binance, alleging the top cryptocurrency trading platform knowingly helped transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in support of terrorist activities.
The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in North Dakota came one month after President Donald Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who had pleaded guilty to failing to combat money laundering on the crypto exchange.
Defendants Zhao, known as CZ, and close associate Guangying “Heina” Chen intentionally designed Binance “as a criminal enterprise to facilitate money laundering on a global scale,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Years before October 7, Binance knew that Hamas, the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran], Hezbollah, [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] and other terrorist organizations were all transacting regularly on its platform and nevertheless actively assisted their use of the platform,” the plaintiffs allege.
“It did so at a time when Hamas, in particular, was publicly directing its donors to send funds to so-called ‘crypto wallets’ held with Binance,” they allege.
