The U.S. Justice Department is investigating Iran’s use of Binance to evade U.S. sanctions, according to new reporting by The Wall Street Journal. 

The new probe follows the crypto exchange’s reported dismissal of compliance staffers and the alleged dismantling of an internal review into more than $1 billion believed to flow through the platform to a network funding Iran-backed militant groups. U.S. officials have recently contacted people with knowledge of the transactions to seek interviews and gather evidence, the Journal said. 

The newspaper said it could not determine whether prosecutors are examining potential misconduct by Binance itself or focusing only on customers who used the exchange.

The investigation places Binance back under scrutiny after founder Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, received a pardon from President Donald Trump in October. Binance pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating U.S. anti-money-laundering and sanctions laws, paying $4.3 billion and agreeing to operate under U.S. oversight, while Zhao pleaded guilty to a related charge and served four months in jail.

Binance suspended employees last November after they flagged $1.7 billion moving from Chinese clients into digital wallets used by Iran to finance proxies, including Yemen’s Houthi militants, sources told the Journal. More than $1 billion of that amount was sent by Hong Kong-based payments company Blessed Trust, according to the report.

The Treasury Department-appointed monitor overseeing Binance’s compliance program has also sought information about the Iranian transactions and Blessed Trust, the Journal reported. Under Binance’s 2023 settlement, the exchange must screen customers for possible terrorism financing and sanctions evasion and report suspicious transactions to the Treasury Department.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) opened an inquiry last month into Binance’s handling of Iranian transactions. In a letter to Binance co-CEO Richard Teng, Blumenthal requested details on the reported transactions and on alleged firings of compliance personnel who identified the activity. Blumenthal is the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, PSI. 

Read more at The Wall Street Journal