Key Takeaways
- Two Binance employees were detained at U.A.E. airports and later released.
- A third Binance executive was questioned by police in July.
- Some employees were linked to a corporate bank account tied to the exchange.
Employees Held After Airport Stops, Then Released
Emirati police pulled two Binance employees aside at airports in recent weeks during a fraud investigation into money moving through the exchange, The New York Times reported Aug. 20. A third Binance official, who runs the company’s Dubai subsidiary, was questioned at a police station in July. All three have since been released. Binance’s main regulator is based in the Emirates.
One of the two, a mid-level employee, was held overnight at a Sharjah police station this month after being stopped at the airport, according to people familiar with the inquiries. The other employee was stopped by police at a different Emirati airport around the same time. Four people described what happened on condition of anonymity because the police inquiry is still open.
A Binance spokesman was quoted as saying:
“A small number of our personnel were recently asked to provide standard statements to local authorities as part of routine inquiries relating to third-party fund flows.”
“Our employees were never the targets or subjects of these inquiries, and all who provided statements were promptly cleared and released,” the spokesperson added.
Why Some Employees Were Swept Up
Binance keeps a corporate bank account in the Emirates that handles customer deposits and withdrawals, and a number of employees are named on it. Police appear to have questioned some of those staff for that reason alone, according to one person familiar with the arrangement. It is still unclear what investigators are examining, although the fraud inquiries reportedly focus on customers, not the exchange itself.
The detentions have unsettled Binance employees, and the company asked the Emirati government this month for assistance, one of the people said. It also told officials it was concerned about employee safety in the country. Dubai authorities and the Emirati Ministry of Interior did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Centralized exchanges like Binance must collect identification documents and keep records of customer trades under know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules. Law enforcement agents send the company tens of thousands of inquiries a year about funds crossing its platform, the Times reported.
Assets held through custodial exchanges remain under the platforms’ control, not in wallets the customers control directly. When investigators seek to trace transactions involving Binance, records may include the exchange’s banking documents and information associated with employees authorized to manage relevant accounts.
Binance’s Troubled History With Law Enforcement
Binance’s legal problems include its 2023 guilty plea in Seattle federal court for violating U.S. anti-money-laundering laws. It forfeited $2.51 billion and paid a criminal fine of $1.81 billion.
Founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) stepped down as chief executive as part of that deal and later served four months in federal prison.
A separate detention occurred in Nigeria in 2024, when authorities arrested a Binance compliance executive, Tigran Gambaryan, and held him for months before authorities dropped the charges and released him following pressure from U.S. officials. Late last year, Binance fired or suspended several senior compliance officials who had reported billions of dollars moving from customer accounts to Iran-linked entities, according to published reports. The company disputed the reported conclusions and denied punishing anyone for raising compliance concerns.
President Trump granted Zhao a full and unconditional pardon on Oct. 21, 2025, according to Justice Department paperwork. The pardon came almost two years after Zhao’s guilty plea, and lawmakers criticized it, pointing to Binance’s business relationship with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto company.
Deepening Ties to the Emirates Despite the Legal Pressure
The Emirates has also become one of Binance’s biggest financial backers during the same period. MGX, a state-backed Emirati fund, invested $2 billion in the exchange in March 2025, the first outside investment Binance had ever accepted.
Abu Dhabi regulators then authorized Binance’s global platform under a framework covering trading, clearing, and custody through three separate companies. Nest Exchange, Nest Clearing and Custody, and Nest Trading started operating Jan. 5. Binance was the first crypto exchange to secure the three-part regulatory approval under the Abu Dhabi Global Market framework, according to the company’s announcement published on the regulator’s website. The company says it has more than 300 million registered users worldwide.
The investment and regulatory authorization have increased Binance’s financial and operational ties to the Emirates. European investigators have reported greater difficulty obtaining records from the company concerning suspected crimes over the past year, according to the Times. The shift followed a change in how Binance handles some law enforcement requests.
