The U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) national security division has started investigating Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, over potential violations of U.S. sanctions on Russia.
The investigation will look into whether Binance illegally allowed Russians to bypass sanctions and move money through the exchange.
- The probe is in a parallel track with an existing inquiry by the criminal division.
- The move;came shortly after;several Russian users reported that they were able to access some services of Binance despite the restrictions the platform began imposing last year.
- At the time, a Binance spokesperson stated that the platform adheres to all current restrictions related to sanctions against Russian citizens.
- The exchange has also been in talks with the DOJ to settle previous claims that it was used to bypass sanctions against Iran.
- This type of complex probe by the DOJ can take months, and not all inquiries result in formal accusations of misconduct.
- Binance is also under scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and federal prosecutors in the U.S.
- Binance started imposing restrictions on Russian citizens and residents in 2022 after the European Union (EU) and the U.S. announced sanctions against Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine.
- As part of the sanctions, the exchange ended support for deposits from Visa and Mastercard cards issued in Russia, restricted customer accounts with balances over 10,000 euros from accessing its crypto services, and banned peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions in euros and dollars for Russians, excluding the Russian ruble option.