Emirati police detained two Binance workers at airports amid a fraud inquiry into fund flows, the NYT reported. The detentions add to Binance’s regulatory challenges after its 2023 guilty plea.
Alpha Score of 42 reflects weak overall profile with weak momentum, poor value, moderate quality, weak sentiment.
Police in the United Arab Emirates detained two Binance employees at airports and questioned a third as part of a fraud inquiry into funds moving through the exchange, The New York Times reported Aug. 20. All three have been released. Binance said none of them were targets.
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 four people familiar with the inquiries. The other employee was stopped at a different Emirati airport around the same time. A third Binance official, who runs the company’s Dubai subsidiary, was questioned at a police station in July.
A Binance spokesman said in a statement:
“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.”
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. Binance 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.
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 stepped down as chief executive as part of that deal and later served four months in federal prison. President Trump granted Zhao a full and unconditional pardon on Oct. 21, 2025, according to Justice Department paperwork.
A separate detention occurred in Nigeria in 2024, when authorities arrested a Binance compliance executive, Tigran Gambaryan, and held him for months before dropping charges 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.
The Emirates has also become one of Binance’s biggest financial backers. 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 and clearing, plus custody services through three separate companies. Binance launched regulated entities including Nest Exchange and Nest Clearing and Custody, with Nest Trading also starting operations 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.
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.
Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume. For broader context on exchange risk and market structure, see our crypto market analysis.
The police inquiry remains open, four people said. No charges have been filed.
Prepared with AlphaScala editorial tooling from the source reporting linked above. Indexable analysis may include a cited Alpha Score value. Publishing checks screen each story before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.