FT: Binance Allegedly Processed $1.7B in Suspicious Crypto — $144M After 2023 Plea

Headline: Binance allegedly allowed suspicious accounts to keep moving crypto — $1.7B processed since 2021, $144M after 2023 plea deal Binance reportedly continued to process large volumes of potentially suspicious crypto activity even after agreeing to tighten controls in a $4.3 billion US criminal settlement in 2023, according to internal data reviewed by the Financial Times. What the files show - The FT says a network of 13 user accounts handled roughly $1.7 billion in transactions from 2021 onward, including about $144 million after Binance’s November 2023 plea agreement. - The leaked material reportedly includes KYC documents, IP and device logs, and transaction histories for users in countries such as Venezuela, Brazil, Syria, Niger and China. - All 13 accounts displayed common markers of illicit-finance risk and together received about $29 million in USDT stablecoins from wallets later frozen by Israel under anti-terrorism laws. Striking individual cases - One account tied to a 25-year-old Venezuelan woman allegedly received more than $177 million over two years and changed its linked bank details 647 times in 14 months — behavior former prosecutors told the FT would normally be treated as highly suspicious and potentially consistent with an unregistered money-transmitting business. - Another account, held by a junior bank employee in a poor Caracas neighborhood, reportedly saw about $93 million flow in and out between 2022 and May 2025. Internal logs showed the account accessed from Caracas one afternoon and from Osaka, Japan, less than 10 hours later — a physically impossible sequence that experts say should have triggered automatic review at a regulated firm. Regulatory concerns and responses Regulatory and AML specialists quoted by the FT said the findings raise fresh doubts about how fully Binance has implemented the governance, surveillance and real-time monitoring upgrades it promised U.S. authorities when it struck its 2023 deal. At that time, U.S. prosecutors said Binance had failed to report more than 100,000 suspicious transactions related to ransomware, child sexual abuse, drug trafficking and transfers tied to extremist groups including al-Qaeda and ISIS. Industry voices Nick Heather, head of trading at ONE.io, told Cointelegraph the revelations point to an escalation and oversight gap rather than a market-structure problem. He said robust governance, sanctions screening and post-trade surveillance are critical, and that regulated markets already expect such safeguards. Responses and context Binance did not respond to Cointelegraph by press time. The report follows other high-profile events in Binance’s legal and public-relations timeline, including the October pardon of founder Changpeng Zhao by U.S. President Donald Trump. Why it matters If accurate, the FT’s findings suggest that substantial suspicious flows continued to move through Binance after its legally mandated compliance commitments — a development that could rekindle regulatory scrutiny and raise questions about the practical effectiveness of imposed remediation measures. (Reported by the Financial Times; additional commentary via Cointelegraph sources.) Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news