Police say Binance is making it harder to fight crime

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has quietly changed the way it cooperates with law enforcement in many countries around the world, frustrating investigators who say the company has made it harder to track down fraudsters and fight money laundering.

The new policy is a big shift for Binance. The company tried to clean up its act after years of legal trouble, working directly with investigators to freeze suspicious accounts and share information about customers who made suspicious transactions.

However, in April of last year, Binance enacted a policy requiring law enforcement officials to direct certain requests to foreign government agencies, a time-consuming process governed by international treaties. That rule, along with an exodus of senior compliance staff, has stalled some investigations in Europe and raised concerns in the United States, The New York Times has learned.

Binance is moving billions of dollars in digital coins every day, leading to a booming global industry embraced by the Trump administration. Last year, President Trump eased federal scrutiny of crypto companies at the same time his family’s crypto startup established a business relationship with Binance.

The company said it has not slowed down its cooperation with law enforcement authorities and that the change was to ensure that Binance complies with privacy regulations and laws when handling customers’ personal data. There is no indication that the change is related to the Trump administration’s loosening of regulations.

But investigators said the policy created new obstacles to fighting financial crime.

Police officers from five European countries who attended a law enforcement conference in the Netherlands last month said they had difficulty getting information from Binance, except in cases involving material related to child sexual abuse, terrorism or an immediate threat to life. A senior European law enforcement official said most requests were directed to the government of the United Arab Emirates, where Binance is regulated, which dramatically slowed response times.

In the United States, law enforcement agencies are largely exempt from the requirement to submit requests to foreign governments, three people familiar with the policy said. But in some cases, Binance is asking prosecutors to route their requests through other countries, which has hindered at least two investigations this year, according to people familiar with the cases and reports reviewed by The Times.

Alona Katz, an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, told The Times that she has generally found Binance to be responsive, sometimes providing information within hours. But she said she was unable to obtain account records from some UAE-based Binance users.

In fast-moving cases, where criminals move funds between accounts in minutes or even seconds, speed in recovering stolen funds is key, she said. “How quickly you get your records determines the outcome of your case,” she said. “It’s everything.

“It is important for the victims of cryptocurrency theft that these massive and highly profitable cryptocurrency corporations cooperate in a timely manner,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.

Binance offers ordinary people a gateway to buy cryptocurrencies. She also tried to eradicate crime. The company paid $4.3 billion in fines to the US government after admitting in 2023 to violations that allowed hackers, fraudsters and other criminals to move money. The company’s billionaire founder, Changpeng Zhao, spent four months in federal prison.

Under his plea agreement with the Department of Justice, Binance agreed to take steps to prevent financial crime. While most crypto transactions are recorded on a public ledger, funds that enter an exchange like Binance cannot be traced unless the company hands over account information.

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Even before the deal was finalized, Binance began enthusiastically cooperating with law enforcement, including handing over the identities of account holders, according to officials in Europe and the United States. The company has built a team of hundreds of compliance officers, many of whom are veterans of US and European law enforcement. Police could often get account information from Binance much faster than from banks.

Since Mr. Trump’s inauguration in early 2025, his administration has taken a much friendlier approach to the crypto industry than his predecessor. Binance has established a business relationship with World Liberty Financial, a crypto company founded by the president and his sons. Emirati venture firm MGX used cryptocurrency World Liberty to buy a stake in Binance, a major boost for the Trump startup. And you note in April 2025, Todd Blanche, now the acting attorney general, said the administration would stop targeting exchanges like Binance and focus on prosecuting criminals who abused the platforms. Mr. Trump also pardoned Mr. Zhao.

Late last year, Binance fired or suspended several of its top compliance staff. Officials sounded the alarm about $1.7 billion they say came from Binance accounts to Iranian entities. Binance has controversial employee findings and said they were not disciplined for raising compliance concerns. Several other senior compliance officers left around the same time.

Some investigators and prosecutors have lost key points of contact at Binance, according to people familiar with the shakeup. And the departure of so many high-ranking members of the compliance staff has led to confusion within the company about how to deal with the demands of law enforcement.

The rules put in place by Binance in April 2025 are complex and have so far had more serious implications for investigators in Europe.

There, Binance now often requires law enforcement officials who want information about accounts outside their home country — such as a German prosecutor trying to freeze someone’s account in Asia — to follow procedures set out in mutual legal assistance agreements. agreements which regulate how countries share information in law enforcement investigations. (The same contracts apply to banks.)

Noah Perlman, chief compliance officer for Binance, said that “in some cross-border cases, foreign law enforcement may be directed to the appropriate formal legal process.”

Still, he said the company has stepped up cooperation with law enforcement “while dealing with the increasing complexity of governments trying to regulate cryptocurrencies and data protection.” When law enforcement agencies seek information about accounts in their own countries, Binance works directly with them. The company has gone “far beyond” its legal obligations, Mr. Perlman said, and remains committed to fulfilling the requirements of its 2023 agreement with the United States.

But concerns persisted. In December, Binance acquired a license operate in Abu Dhabi. Since then, certain requests for information have been going through the Emirati government, raising concerns among current and former law enforcement officials. They argue that the Emirates are in a conflict of interest because the MGX investment company is funded by Abu Dhabi royalty.

Mr. Perlman said there was no conflict of interest. A spokeswoman for Abu Dhabi regulator Binance said it was committed to protecting the integrity of the market and fighting financial crime. MGX did not respond to a request for comment.

This spring, US investigators began to worry that the company’s rules would become more onerous and mirror what was happening in Europe.

AND Binance’s compliance officer told the Justice Department that starting June 8, the company will expand its contractual requirement to cover a broader range of U.S. law enforcement requests, three people familiar with the matter said. Around the same time, top Justice Department officials sent an email to prosecutors warning that Binance was about to end its cooperation. Information.

Top company officials have not moved forward with that plan, the people said. Ms. Katz, the Brooklyn prosecutor, said it would be “devastating for our victims” if that happened.