Binance failed to stop hundreds of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency from flowing through suspicious accounts, even after promising to improve its conduct in a landmark $4.3bn US criminal settlement in 2023.
A Financial Times investigation of leaked internal files detailing thousands of transactions shows such accounts continued trading despite red flags including links to terror financing networks, improbable log-in patterns and failed identity checks.
One user of the world’s largest crypto exchange was the resident of a Venezuelan slum who moved $93mn through his account between 2021 and this year. Some of those funds came from a network later accused by the US of covertly moving money for Iran and Lebanon’s Hizbollah militant group.