Binance is facing an investigation from US federal prosecutors over a potential breach of US sanctions on Iran, Bloomberg has reported.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the news outlet said that the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform is being probed by the Manhattan US attorney’s office, with involvement from the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) criminal division in Washington.

The investigation centres on the platform not banning certain individuals from trading, with one of the people telling Bloomberg that the DoJ is scrutinising whether Binance did so knowingly.

In a statement to the news site, Binance said that it has a zero-tolerance approach to sanctions violations. “We fully cooperate with law enforcement, and we remain committed to rooting out and shutting down bad actors,” it added.

The DoJ declined to comment to comment to Bloomberg, while the Manhattan US attorney's office ‌could ⁠not immediately be reached for a comment outside regular business hours.

This is the latest in a string of legal issues involving Binance and Iranian sanctions.

Last week, the US prosecutors alleged that two Chinese companies used the platform to launder $61 million in payments for black market oil from Iran and attempted to funnel funds back to the Iranian government.

The DoJ filed a forfeiture complaint seeking to seize the funds, which it said were sent through a network of digital wallets that received and distributed more than $1.5 billion in proceedings from the sale of Iranian oil. The transactions took place in May and June last year and were frozen in the following months, it added.

The case does not allege wrongdoing by Binance itself, which said in a statement at the time that it does not permit transactions with sanctioned individuals.

In February, the New York Times reported that an internal investigation had found that two Binance accounts were used to send around $1.7 billion to Iranian entities with links to terrorist groups, with one of the accounts belonging to a Binance vendor. At least four employees involved with the investigation were fired or suspended after reporting their findings to top executives.

The company’s record with money laundering charges is not unblemished. In 2023, the company pled guilty to US criminal charges of a breach of anti-money laundering laws and paid a $4.3 billion fine.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to protect against money laundering and was sentenced to four months in federal prison. He was pardoned by President Donald Trump in October of last year.

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