Binance Accused of ‘Knowingly’ Enabling Oct. 7 Terror Attacks in Explosive Lawsuit

(AP Photo/Adel Hana/YouTube screenshot)

Cryptocurrency giant Binance and its Trump-pardoned co-founder Changpeng Zhao are accused of “knowingly” helping to channel “more than $1 billion” to Hamas and other U.S.-designated terror groups in the years leading up to the October 7 attacks in a new explosive lawsuit filed on behalf of victims’ families.

The 284-page filing, submitted in federal court in North Dakota, claims the world’s largest crypto exchange “deliberately” failed “to monitor inbound funds” tied to Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Among the 306 American plaintiffs are families of dual Israeli-American victims, including freed Hamas hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin and IDF soldier Itay Chen, who was killed while held by the group.

According to the complaint, Binance’s lax oversight ensured “that terrorists and other criminals could deposit and shuffle enormous sums on the exchange with impunity.”

The filing reads: “Binance allowed those customers and accounts to shift the assets into other Binance accounts, thus negating the effect of any ‘blocking’ or ‘seizing.’”

Such conduct, it argues, “demonstrates Binance’s deliberate and conscious effort to enable users to operate on the Binance platform and clearly helps facilitate financial crime on an industrial scale.”

Zhao is among those named in the lawsuit, alongside associate Guangying Chen.

Zhao, who pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in 2023 and served four months in prison, was pardoned by President Donald Trump in October. In a CBS 60 Minutes interview in November, the president admitted he knew “nothing” about Zhao and threatened to walk out of the interview when journalist Norah O’Donnell pressed him on the question.

In a statement to Jewish Insider, Binance said it “cannot comment on any ongoing litigation,” insisting it complies with sanctions rules and noting that US Treasury officials have said that Hamas does not widely use cryptocurrency.