Pardoned By Trump, Binance Founder Now Accused Of Funding Hamas, Hezbollah

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who was pardoned by US President Donald Trump not too long ago, is now facing fresh allegations of transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas and Hezbollah in the aftermath of the October 7 attack on Israel.

A lawsuit has been filed in a US federal court by the families of victims who were killed, injured, or taken hostage during the assault, alleging that Zhao and his cryptocurrency company facilitated funds to terrorist organisations, according to Financial Times.

The lawsuit accuses Zhao and his close associate, Guangying "Heina" Chen, of purposely creating Binance to help criminals and terrorists facilitate money laundering on a global scale.

They alleged that long before the October 7, 2023, attack, Binance already knew that Hamas, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist organisations were all transacting regularly on its platform and over $50 million in cryptocurrency went to their accounts.

The lawsuit further alleges that Binance's own company-run wallets, not just user accounts, sent over $300 million to terrorist-linked accounts before the Hamas attack and more than $115 million after the attack.

The lawsuit further mentioned, "Binance not only knowingly provided financial services to Hamas; it actively tried to shield its Hamas customers and their funds from scrutiny by US regulators or law enforcement—a practice that continues to this day."

The lawyers say that even after Binance paid a huge $4.3 billion fine in November 2023 for breaking US anti-money laundering and sanctions rules, terror-related payments still continued to move through the platform, according to CNBC.

Zhao was then sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of failure to protect against money laundering. In October, Trump pardoned him, stating he had been targeted by the Biden administration as part of what they called a "war on cryptocurrency".

The White House even claimed that US agencies went after Zhao even though he wasn't accused of fraud, and there were no direct victims in his earlier case.

The victims are seeking compensatory damages and requesting "treble damages". This is in accordance with a law that permits victims of international terrorism to get compensation equal to three times their losses.