A U.S. federal judge has dismissed a civil lawsuit that sought to hold Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, liable for transactions allegedly linked to terrorist groups behind 64 attacks worldwide, according to Reuters.

U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan ruled on Friday that the 535 plaintiffs, including victims and relatives of victims, had not plausibly alleged that Binance and Zhao had knowingly aligned themselves with the attacks or acted to help bring them about, Reuters reported.

The lawsuit covered attacks that plaintiffs said took place between 2017 and 2024 and attributed to groups they described as foreign terrorist organizations, including Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Islamic State, Kataib Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda, Reuters said.

Plaintiffs alleged that Binance and Zhao were liable for the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to and from those groups, as well as billions of dollars in alleged transactions with Iranian users that they said benefited proxies involved in the attacks, according to the news agency.

But Vargas said the plaintiffs had not shown that Binance and Zhao had the kind of direct connection required to establish liability, according to the news report. The judge said the defendants’ only relationship to the groups was that “they, or their affiliates, had accounts on, and have transacted on, the Binance exchange in an arms’ length relationship.”

The lawsuit was brought under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act, a controversial law that establishes a private right of action for American nationals who have been injured by an act of international terrorism. To date, the lawsuits brought under the law have primarily targeted charities and banks accused of providing material support to terrorist groups, including in the form of services. 

In 2018, after a long and convoluted lawsuit brought under the law against Arab Bank, the Jordan-based lender agreed to a finalized monetary settlement of unknown terms. Most ATA claims targeting financial institutions have failed to date, however. 

Read more at Reuters