Binance co-CEO Richard Teng, on Tuesday, reiterated that exchange maintains strict compliance standards amid its ongoing legal battle with the Wall Street Journal. Teng, on X, reshared a March 10 company statement defending the exchange against claims of having facilitated $1.7 billion to sanctioned Iranian accounts and then having terminated internal whistleblowers who flagged these illicit activities.
In what appeared to be a strategic damage control move, Teng published a “facts over fiction” post. The timing of this post is interesting as it came on the heels of Binance’s second legal win in Alabama, acquitting it on a lawsuit that claimed that the company was in violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).
In a bid to flip the script on Binance’s recent bad press, Teng claimed that neither did Binance fire staff members who raised compliance concerns nor did it breach any US and international sanction provisions.
The official blog link from last week that Teng re-shared on Tuesday argues against a report by the Wall Street Journal published last week that claimed that between 2024 and 2025, the exchange allowed $1.7 billion in crypto to funnel into Iranian from suspicious accounts with some links to China. Binance sued the New York-based publication last week for the report.
Source: X/ @EleanorTerrett
Binance has since maintained that its own internal audit has identified $126.1 million having reached Iran through its platform, of which $24.1 million reached wallets linked Iran’s heavily sanctioned Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Source: Binance
As per Teng, “Binance’s compliance program is stronger than ever.”
The exchange also recently won a case in New York that accused it of having assisted conspired with terrorist organizations for financial facilitations.
Coin Headlines has reached out to Binance seeking inputs on the kind of impact the exchange may have witnessed in the backdrop of the ongoing battle with the WSJ. The responses remain awaited for now.
The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, has said that it stands by its reporting, as per Reuters.