Key Highlights
- Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng said the exchange cooperates with law enforcement globally through structured and lawful processes.
- The company reviews law-enforcement requests against applicable legal, privacy, sanctions, and regulatory requirements.
- Teng emphasized that responding to lawful requests does not mean Binance is taking a political or governmental position.
Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng stated that it cooperates with law enforcement globally through lawful, structured processes that respect legal, privacy, and regulatory requirements in each jurisdiction following a recent report on Binance’s provision of customer information to Russian authorities.
In an X post on Monday, Teng said Binance’s standard is consistent around the world and on par with the highest compliance practices of global financial institutions. He added that it will always protect user rights and cooperate with law enforcement in a neutral and legally compliant way to fight financial crimes and uphold global standards.
Statement on global operations and requests
Operating globally means engaging with authorities across all jurisdictions, including places where Binance does not operate commercially, Teng said. He noted that Binance.com does not operate in the United States, for instance, but still responds to requests from U.S. law enforcement.
Responding to a lawful law enforcement request is the responsibility of all regulated financial institutions, according to the statement. This should not be taken to mean that financial institutions are partial towards any government.
Binance reviews and takes action on every request, ensuring adherence to applicable sanctions and legal, privacy, and regulatory requirements. Cooperation with lawful investigations is part of its responsibility, and it does so in a neutral, structured, and legally compliant manner.
The comments followed a Reuters report on Binance’s provision of customer information to Russian authorities in connection with a Ukraine-related donation case.
Details of the Reuters report
The Reuters report stated that Russian investigators obtained transaction records and personal information belonging to Yuri Belenkiy, a 49-year-old Russian IT specialist and Bulgarian resident who is being held in Russia awaiting trial.
Investigators allege that Belenkiy sent more than $700 in cryptocurrency to organizations connected to Ukraine’s military between January 2023 and March 2024. The transactions were later cited as evidence in terrorism-financing charges against him.
The report was based on law-enforcement documents reviewed by Reuters. The documents were reportedly obtained by the First Department, a Russian legal support organization. Reuters said it could not independently confirm how the documents were obtained.
Binance entry and context of donations
According to the documents reviewed by Reuters, Russian investigators requested Belenkiy’s transaction history from Binance. The information reportedly included his date of birth, address, telephone number, and passport details.
Binance also provided copies of his Russian passport and Bulgarian residency permit. The transaction records were later incorporated into the evidence gathered against Belenkiy. An interim outline of the case sent to Russia’s prosecutor-general cited the cryptocurrency transfers as grounds for the terrorism-financing allegations.
Binance said it cooperates with lawful requests from law-enforcement agencies globally, subject to applicable legal, privacy, and regulatory requirements. The exchange also said it does not determine criminal charges or decide how authorities use information in legal proceedings. Binance declined to comment on Belenkiy’s individual case.
The transactions were linked to fundraising efforts promoted by Arkady Babchenko, an exiled Russian journalist and Kremlin critic who supports Ukraine. Reuters stated that it reviewed posts from Babchenko’s Telegram channel listing cryptocurrency wallet addresses for donations. The funds were intended to help purchase medical equipment for Ukrainian soldiers.
Babchenko later told Reuters that he had warned people inside Russia against making such donations because of the risk of arrest. He also criticized the sharing of Russian donors’ information with law enforcement.
The reported case illustrates the role centralized exchanges can play in connecting blockchain activity with an identified individual, according to the documents.
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