The US Department of Justice has launched an investigation into whether Iran used Binance to dodge American sanctions, a probe that reportedly centers on more than $1 billion that flowed through the exchange to entities supporting Iran-affiliated groups, including Yemen’s Houthi militants.
For an exchange that already pleaded guilty in 2023 and paid a record $4.3 billion fine for anti-money laundering failures, this is the regulatory equivalent of a parole officer showing up with new questions.
What the investigation found so far
The DOJ investigation, launched on March 11, 2026, traces back to work done by Binance’s own internal compliance team. Those investigators flagged approximately $1.7 billion in suspicious transactions before, in a move that raised eyebrows across Washington, the exchange reportedly dismantled parts of its internal investigation unit and terminated the people who found the problems.
In English: Binance’s compliance team spotted the fire, and the company’s response was to reassign the firefighters.
