Senators Probe Binance Oversight and Halkbank Deal

Senators have opened formal inquiries into Justice Department and Treasury oversight of Binance and into a deferred prosecution agreement for Turkey’s state-owned bank Halkbank after reports that about $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency flowed to Iran-linked wallets. The inquiries seek documents and explanations from both agencies about monitoring, enforcement and any outside influence on prosecutorial decisions.

On Friday, Senator Richard Blumenthal sent urgent letters to the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network requesting the status of two independent monitors assigned to Binance under a 2023 settlement. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Adam Schiff joined the review of the Halkbank agreement and asked for the documents behind the Justice Department’s decision to drop criminal charges without monetary penalties.

Under the 2023 settlement, Binance paid a $4.3 billion penalty for inadequate anti-money-laundering controls. The government named Frances McLeod to report to the DOJ and Sharon Cohen Levin to report to FinCEN on Binance’s compliance. Blumenthal’s letters cite what the letter calls “mounting allegations of dangerously lax anti-money laundering prevention” and request records showing whether Binance has weakened compliance policies since 2025, including internal labels for accounts linked to Iran.

Blumenthal wrote directly to Binance co-CEO Richard Teng on April 1, asserting the company had not provided requested materials and warning that gaps in the response “raise further alarms about its candor.” The letters allege Binance took two months to respond to law enforcement about suspected terrorist financing and five months to remove a vendor identified as “Blessed Trust.” The senators also asked for internal compliance files that could show whether accounts tied to Iran were flagged and how those flags were handled; some internal notes reportedly read “Don’t block. Internal accounts.”

The inquiries also probe broader monitorship practices. The senators asked why the DOJ paused monitorships for other companies in 2025 and whether similar pauses affected oversight of Binance. The agencies were asked to provide internal assessments of monitorship performance and records of communications about those pauses.

Separately, the Justice Department reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Halkbank, which is accused of facilitating sanctions evasion for Iran. Under the agreement, the bank will not pay fines, will not admit wrongdoing and will not provide compensation to U.S. victims of Iran-linked terrorism. Blumenthal, Schiff and Schumer asked Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for an explanation and requested related documents from the department.

The senators questioned whether political intervention influenced the Halkbank outcome. They cited reports that after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s September 2025 White House visit, he told associates that “the Halkbank problem is over for us.” Senator Ron Wyden wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, calling the abandonment of prosecution while the United States is engaged militarily with Iran “nothing short of rank incompetence.”

Lawmakers have asked the DOJ and Treasury for detailed records, including communications with the White House, internal assessments of corporate monitorship performance, and Binance’s internal compliance records. The agencies have not yet released the requested documents.

Background: Corporate monitors are commonly used in large settlements to oversee compliance. Deferred prosecution agreements pause criminal charges while conditions are met and can include fines or admissions of wrongdoing; the Halkbank agreement did not include those remedies.