Crypto exchange Binance reportedly handed Russian authorities the transaction details of one of its customers despite fully withdrawing its operations from Russia in 2023.
According to Reuters, the crypto exchange gave up the transfer history of Yuri Belenkiy, an IT specialist who holds a Bulgarian residency permit and Russian passport.
Belenkiy was accused of terrorist financing by Russia’s Investigative Committee after he allegedly sent over $700 worth of funds to Ukraine’s military and another military group via Binance.
Russia asked Binance to reveal further donations
Russia’s Investigative Committee claimed he made the payments after witnessing an online appeal from Arkady Babchenko, a Ukraine-supporting advocate exiled from Russia.
Crypto payments were allegedly sent between January 2023 and March 2024. The committee also pushed Binance to reveal who else had sent funds to the advocate, but it’s unclear whether Binance complied.
Read more: Russia sanctions British teenager over crypto laundering report
Legal expert Mike Bystrov, who has previously represented Binance when Russia tried banning the site in 2021, told Reuters that Binance wasn’t required to give Russia the data and that it might have even broken the EU’s data laws in doing so.
Belenkiy’s Bulgarian residency status would make him an EU citizen, but it’s unclear whether he was registered on Binance as an EU resident.
Binance says it would remain neutral
Binance told Reuters it “does not make or enforce the laws of any jurisdiction, determine charges, or decide how any government uses information in legal proceedings.”
“Like other global financial institutions, we cooperate with lawful information requests from law enforcement globally, subject to applicable legal, privacy and regulatory requirements.”
Binance CEO Richard Teng said this responsibility is shared by all regulated financial institutions and that “it should not be taken to mean that financial institutions are partial towards any government.”
Read more: Binance hit with $200M UK lawsuit one day before EU exit
Binance’s complete exit from Russia has been doubted before
Russia’s exit was doubted back in 2023 when Binance brokers like Nominex appeared to be actively offering their services to Russia.
CommEX, a crypto exchange that bought Binance’s operations in September 2023, also raised questions after users noticed the exchange was oddly similar to Binance, leading many to assume that it was a white-label Binance Cloud-based exchange.
It later shut down its operations in May 2024.
Protos has reached out to Binance for comment and it directed us to a statement that mirrored Teng’s post on X about the situation.
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