WSJ ties Binance ‘high-value customer’ to Iran network

A new investigation by The Wall Street Journal, published Friday, Oct. 9, focuses on a Binance client the exchange labeled a "high-value customer." The Journal links him to a network run by sanctioned Iranian financier Babak Zanjani, which carried out nearly \$850 million in transactions on the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Binance said it had already identified every account with any connection to sanctions violations and restricted the suspicious activity.benzinga+1

The report adds to months of Journal reporting on whether Binance kept to the compliance promises it made when it pleaded guilty in 2023 to anti-money-laundering and sanctions violations and paid a \$4.3 billion penalty.binance

The new findings

According to accounts of the report, Binance identified 21 trading accounts linked to Zanjani. An internal 80-page Binance report showed at least \$67 million flowing from two of those accounts to wallets that Israeli authorities identified as linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). One of the two accounts belonged to Sukhrob Oimakhmadov. He received more than \$10 million from wallets that were later flagged as IRGC-linked.benzinga

Binance had already investigated Oimakhmadov for "sanctions exposure" over his dealings with an Iranian money exchange, Aban Tether, the Journal reported. Under its risk-based compliance approach, the exchange kept him as a customer anyway. Binance said it blocked his account in October 2025 and formally removed him in May 2026.wsj+1

Investigators tied Oimakhmadov to Zedcex, Zanjani's firm. Zedcex's Binance account processed nearly \$830 million, including \$56 million sent to wallets Israel identified as IRGC-linked. Binance records showed the account was accessed repeatedly from Tehran between late 2024 and 2025. The network also involved ZedPay, a company based in Turkey that allegedly turned Iranian oil revenue into crypto to get around banks. U.S. authorities later sanctioned Zanjani, Zedcex and related entities.benzinga

Binance pushes back

Binance said it was "materially misleading" to treat total trading volume as money sent to the IRGC. It did acknowledge past problems in its compliance workflow, including delays between recommendations to close accounts and the final action to close them.benzinga

The Journal first reported the \$850 million figure in May. At the time, it said the main account kept operating for at least 15 months despite repeated internal red flags. Binance CEO Richard Teng called that report "fundamentally inaccurate." He said the flagged activity took place before the people involved were sanctioned, and repeated that Binance has "zero-tolerance for illicit activity".wsj+1

Mounting scrutiny

The exchange has sued Dow Jones, the Journal's publisher, for defamation over its earlier reporting. In March, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations asked Teng for records on Binance's alleged role in Iranian money laundering. Earlier Journal reports said Binance investigators had flagged \$1.7 billion moving through an Iranian network. In September, the Journal reported that the Justice Department had said Binance customers used the exchange to move Iranian oil money.wsj+2