Binance has pushed back against a report alleging that it dismissed compliance personnel after they identified $1 billion in USDT transfers linked to entities connected with Iran. Binance board member and CEO Richard Teng said the company found no sanctions violations in its records and did not terminate any employee for raising such concerns.
Report traced the transfers to March 2024 through August 2025
The dispute follows an investigative report published by a U.S. media outlet on February 13, 2026. According to that report, members of Binance’s compliance and audit teams identified Tether transfers totaling $1 billion between March 2024 and August 2025. The transactions were said to involve entities with ties to Iran. The same report claimed that more than five staff members were let go after the discovery.
It also said some of those who left were veteran investigators with backgrounds in law enforcement and security. Publicly, though, no clear explanation from Binance had emerged on the reasons behind the reported departures before the company issued its response.
Binance says no sanctions breach was found
In a written statement, Teng rejected the allegations directly. He said: “No sanctions breaches were found in our company records. No employee was dismissed for flagging concerns, and Binance continues to fulfill its regulatory obligations.” He added that Binance had contacted several media organizations to request corrections to their reporting.
A representative from Binance’s communications team also said the original story contained significant inaccuracies and misleading conclusions. The company stated that neither operational decisions nor departures were tied to sanctions alerts. Binance added that its internal review was carried out under the oversight of its own legal team and independent law offices, and that the review of the flagged transfers did not uncover evidence of sanctions violations.
Claims arrive under existing U.S. scrutiny
Binance has faced tighter scrutiny in the United States since its high-profile 2023 settlement over alleged money laundering and sanctions violations. Since that settlement, the exchange has repeatedly said it has been strengthening compliance procedures. Last year, Binance also said it had made major upgrades to its sanctions screening and compliance systems after reaching an agreement with U.S. authorities.
At the same time, blockchain analytics firms including TRM Labs, Chainalysis, and Elliptic have reported growing use of USDT for cross-border transfers by individuals and entities linked to Iran. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, has taken action against other crypto exchanges over similar issues. Elliptic recently said that certain USDT transactions on the Tron network were connected to addresses appearing on sanctions lists.
So far, there have been no official investigations or new administrative actions tied to these latest claims.