U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas of Manhattan dismissed a civil lawsuit seeking to hold Binance and its founder CZ liable for allegedly aiding terrorist organizations in carrying out global attacks through their trading activities. The judge ruled that the 535 plaintiffs (including victims and their families) failed to reasonably demonstrate that the defendants "intentionally colluded with, participated in, or ensured the success of terrorist attacks through their actions." The plaintiffs alleged that attacks, occurring between 2017 and 2024, were carried out by external terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, ISIS, Hezbollah al-Qaeda, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and al-Qaeda, and attempted to attribute hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency and transactions with Iranian users to Binance and CZ. The judge noted that while Binance and CZ may have been aware of the potential terrorist financing role of the exchange, their relationship with terrorist organizations was limited to "their or their affiliates having accounts on Binance and trading in a fair manner." The judge also criticized the plaintiffs' 891-page, 3,189-paragraph complaint as "completely unnecessary" but allowed for amendments. A Binance spokesperson stated, "The court correctly dismissed these baseless allegations. Binance strictly adheres to compliance requirements and has zero tolerance for illegal activities on its platform." CZ also claims the plaintiffs are attempting to obtain triple damages based on Binance's November 2023 admission of violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws and payment of a $4.32 billion penalty. (Reuters)
Catherine
