Getting fired for doing your job used to be the exception, not the rule at major corporations. Yet that’s exactly what happened to at least four Binance investigators who discovered $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency flowing to Iranian-linked entities—including the Revolutionary Guards Corps, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Internal documents show the compliance team flagged these massive transactions in fall 2025, reported them up the chain, then got suspended and locked out of company systems within weeks.
The Money Trail Leads to Terror Financing
The investigators identified two main channels funneling money to Iran:
- Blessed Trust, a vendor providing payment services to Binance, moved $1.2 billion to Iranian entities over two years through cryptocurrency wallets connected to the Revolutionary Guards
- Hexa Whale Trading, which sent $490 million before Israeli law enforcement contacted Binance about terror financing connections
Most transactions used Tether stablecoins on the Tron blockchain—a combination that’s become the preferred tool for sanctions evasion. The kicker? Many of these violations occurred after Binance’s 2023 guilty plea and $4.3 billion settlement for previous money laundering violations.
Whistleblowing Gets You Fired, Apparently
Binance suspended the original investigators in November 2025, then fired their replacements within days of taking over the case. The company’s explanation? “Violations of company protocol” and unauthorized disclosure of client data. But as former DOJ sanctions prosecutor Robert Appleton told Fortune: “That’s rather shocking that that happened under a monitorship.” You don’t need a law degree to see the pattern here—report massive sanctions violations, get shown the door immediately.
Trump’s Crypto Friendship Complicates Everything
The investigator firings occurred against a backdrop of cozy political relationships. President Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in October 2025, months after the Trump family’s crypto venture forged business ties with Binance. Zhao even attended a Mar-a-Lago conference in February 2026. Meanwhile, Noah Perlman, Binance’s chief compliance officer hired to clean up the mess, plans to leave later this year. When your compliance chief heads for the exits amid investigator purges, that tells you everything about institutional priorities.
The Bigger Picture for Crypto
Binance denies wrongdoing and claims it removed flagged accounts while notifying authorities. But the damage runs deeper than corporate spin can fix. If the world’s largest crypto exchange fires investigators for finding sanctions violations while under active federal monitoring, what does that say about the industry’s commitment to following the law? Your cryptocurrency holdings are only as secure as the platforms you trust with them—and trust requires more than marketing promises about compliance infrastructure.
