New explosive allegations come in a complaint filed in federal court by families of October 7th victims

Comes one month after Trump pardoned Zhao and Binance expanded their investment into World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto startup

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has been accused in federal court of facilitating payments to Hamas, just a month after Donald Trump pardoned him for his conviction on major charges related to money laundering. The bombshell allegations come after Binance announced an expansion of its partnership with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto startup.

The complaint was filed by American citizens whose family members were murdered, maimed, or taken hostage during Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. 

In response, DNC Communications Director Rosemary Boeglin released the following statement: 

“Less than a month after Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao and the two of them struck a lucrative business deal to line Trump’s pockets, Zhao now stands accused of helping finance Hamas. This is horrifying, and if the accusations are true, Zhao should be held accountable. This is the company Trump keeps – anything is fair game as long as the Trump family continues to make a fortune. Meanwhile, the families of Hamas victims deserve justice, and the public deserves to know the truth.” 

Reminder: Binance is one of the main drivers of the growth of World Liberty’s stablecoin, called USD1, which has contributed to the massive surge in Trump’s personal wealth since he took office. The Trump family has made hundreds of millions of dollars through World Liberty, which has received money from firms linked to Russia, China, and the U.A.E. 

Zhao was convicted on serious charges related to money laundering, after his actions allowed sanctioned countries and terrorist groups to move money through Binance. To secure a pardon, Mr. Zhao hired Ches McDowell, a lawyer, lobbyist and longtime hunting companion of Donald Trump Jr.

Read more below:

Financial Times: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao accused of facilitating payments to Hamas

By Joe Miller and Nikou Asgari

• The billionaire Binance founder pardoned by Donald Trump has been accused of facilitating millions of dollars’ worth of payments to Hamas in the wake of its attack on Israel on October 7 2023.
  
• In a complaint filed in US federal court on Monday by American citizens whose family members were murdered, maimed or taken hostage in the assault, Changpeng Zhao and the cryptocurrency exchange he founded are alleged to have knowingly provided “substantial assistance” to militant groups including Hamas and Hizbollah, helping them conceal the movement of funds.
  
• The payments allegedly laundered through Binance — the largest crypto exchange in the world — continued even after the company paid more than $4.3bn in November 2023 to settle US charges of violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, lawyers for the victims claim in the lawsuit.
  
• Lawyers for the October 7 families claim that Binance facilitated transactions to cryptocurrency wallets linked to Gaza-based organisations that the exchange knew, or should have known, were linked to Hamas and other proscribed terrorist groups.
  
• They allege that more than $50mn in transactions to accounts linked to Hamas, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Lebanese militant movement Hizbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another faction in Gaza, on public blockchains were facilitated by Binance since October 7 2023. 
  
• They further allege that wallets run by Binance itself “sent the equivalent of more than $300mn to designated wallets on the blockchain before the . . . attacks and more than $115mn after”. 

• “Binance ensured that terrorists and other criminals could deposit and shuffle enormous sums on the exchange with impunity,” lawyers for the plaintiffs allege in the suit, adding that some of the accounts in question remain active. “To this day, there is no indication that Binance has meaningfully altered its core business model.”

###