Binance sued by Hamas victims after Trump pardons crypto founder CZ

Dozens of families of victims of the attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023, have filed a lawsuit against Binance, claiming that the leading cryptocurrency trading platform knowingly helped transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to support terrorist activities.

case The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in North Dakota, comes a month after President Donald Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to failing to combat money laundering at the crypto exchange.

The lawsuit alleges that defendant Zhao, known as CZ, and his close associate Guangying “Heina” Chen deliberately designed Binance to be “a criminal enterprise that would facilitate money laundering on a global scale.”

“Years before October 7, Binance was involved in Hamas [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran]Hezbollah, [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] The plaintiffs allege that they and other terrorist organizations regularly transact on this platform and yet actively facilitate its use.

“He did this specifically at a time when Hamas was directing its donors to send money to so-called ‘crypto wallets’ held on Binance,” they claim.

The plaintiffs, who are US citizens and their immediate family members, are seeking compensation to be determined at trial. They demand “triple compensation” law It allows victims of international terrorism to recover three times the damage they suffered.

Binance was required to flag the U.S. government as legal by filing “Suspicious Activity Reports,” or SARs, regarding the activities of terrorist groups. But the lawsuit alleges that the company instead tried to change the way transactions were reported “to avoid scrutiny.”

“Binance not only knowingly provided financial services to Hamas; it actively sought to shield Hamas customers and funds from scrutiny by U.S. regulators or law enforcement, a practice that continues today,” according to the lawsuit.

The legal complaint states that Binance “knowingly facilitated more than $50 million in transactions on public blockchains for Hamas, the Revolutionary Guard, Hezbollah, and PIJ” since the October 7 attacks.

Binance declined to comment on the case but said in a statement that it fully complies with international sanctions laws and has “undertaken a far-reaching transformation” around sanctions in recent years.

The lawsuit cites findings from the federal government’s investigations into Binance; these investigations resulted in the company agreeing to pay more than $4.3 billion in late 2023; this is one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland he said then.

Additionally, then-CEO CZ agreed to resign and admit guilt He is accused of failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. CZ was sentenced to four months in prison and released in September 2024.

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said in November 2023 that Binance failed to file SARs on “significant sums of money transmitted to and from entities formally designated as terrorist organizations” by the United States and the United Nations.

On October 23, Trump pardoned CZ, whom the White House declared a victim of the Biden administration’s “war on cryptocurrency.”

Trump later denied knowing anything about CZ. But the president suggested amnesty to help develop the crypto industry in the US, even though he emphasized that he knew little about the industry and that his adult sons were much more involved in it.

Indeed, Trump’s family is heavily invested in the crypto industry and Binance has financial ties to it. In May, the co-founder of the Trump family’s crypto finance platform World Liberty Financial said the company’s stablecoin would be used to facilitate a process. 2 billion dollar investment By Emirati state investment company MGX on Binance.