The newspaper said in its report that Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani, known for his close ties to the Iranian regime, created a complex network to transfer money via cryptocurrencies, taking advantage of loopholes within the “Binance” platform to circumvent Western sanctions.
The report indicated that the network conducted financial transactions exceeding $850 million in just two years, until last December, most of them through one main account on the Binance platform, while those close to Zanjani, including his sister, his romantic partner, and the director of his company, operated additional accounts linked to the network.
According to internal compliance reports at Binance, all of these accounts were managed from the same devices, which the platform’s investigators considered evidence of the existence of an organized operation to circumvent US sanctions imposed on Iran.
Despite repeated internal warnings, the network’s main account remained active for at least 15 months, and continued to operate until last January, according to the report.
The investigation indicated that these transfers represent part of the billions of dollars that flowed through Binance to networks linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard over the past two years, based on internal compliance reports, blockchain data, and information from foreign law enforcement agencies and researchers specializing in digital currencies.
According to foreign officials specialized in monitoring terrorist financing, about $425 million from Zanjani’s transactions are believed to have been allocated directly to finance Iranian military activities, including support for the Revolutionary Guard.
The report also revealed other transfers linked to Iran through Binance, including $107 million transferred by the Central Bank of Iran last year using cryptocurrencies, in addition to direct transactions worth approximately $260 million between accounts on Binance and digital wallets linked to Iranian entities subject to sanctions.
The investigation also indicated that an anonymous digital wallet received funds through “Binance” and then transferred about $218 million to an Iranian state financing network in 2023, which was confirmed by “Blockchain” data.
The report added that these funds are in addition to about another $1.7 billion, which the Wall Street Journal previously said had been linked by Binance investigators to Iranian financing networks.
