Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
A Turkish nationwide’s cryptocurrency account, cash exchanges working in Istanbul and Turkish banking channels allegedly used to maneuver Iranian oil revenues function in a sweeping US lawsuit accusing Binance of serving to finance Hamas and different Iran-backed teams, putting Turkey inside a number of interconnected monetary networks described by the plaintiffs.
The 396-page grievance, filed on June 10, 2026, in the US District Courtroom for the District of North Dakota, alleges that accounts operated from Turkey moved tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in cryptocurrency whereas transacting with networks linked to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Its defendants are Binance Holdings Restricted, founder and former chief government Changpeng Zhao and co-founder Guangying “Heina” Chen. The plaintiffs embody US nationals and households of individuals killed, injured or taken hostage in the October 7, 2023, Hamas assaults on Israel and in subsequent assaults.
One of the particular Turkish connections issues Muhammed Abdulrahman, recognized in the grievance as a Turkish nationwide who was 21 when he registered a Binance account in February 2021.
Based on the plaintiffs, the account dealt with greater than $33 million in mixed cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals over 10 months. The grievance says Israel’s Nationwide Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) designated the account in December 2021 as a part of the Al-Mutahadun for Trade community. It alleges that the account transferred funds to different accounts in that community and interacted with wallets related by way of transactions to Hamas-linked BuyCash and Hezbollah-linked wallets.
The plaintiffs additionally describe an account registered to Fayez Imad Fayez Alkhazendar, recognized as a Gaza resident, that allegedly operated completely from Turkey. Between March and October 2021, it logged in 2,133 occasions from Turkey and recorded roughly $46 million in mixed deposits and withdrawals.
The grievance characterizes the account as a pass-through channel. It says roughly $4.5 million entered the account in its first energetic month and nearly the identical quantity was withdrawn, with related patterns in subsequent months.
US civil grievance filed in opposition to Binance on June 10, 2026, detailing alleged Turkey-linked cryptocurrency transactions involving Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps:
A lot of this exercise allegedly concerned transfers between Binance prospects by way of the alternate’s inner ledger. Not like transactions recorded on a public blockchain, these transfers should not publicly seen in the identical manner. The plaintiffs argue that Binance may see the relationships among the many accounts and continued servicing them regardless of warning indicators.
One other account, registered to Hadi Ghozlan, a Syrian nationwide utilizing a Dominica passport, was allegedly accessed primarily from Turkey and dealt with greater than $52 million in mixed incoming and outgoing transactions over eight months. The grievance says its proprietor purportedly labored in jewellery and gold and that the NBCTF designated the account in December 2021 as a part of the identical alternate community.
The Turkey connections prolong past particular person accounts to cash alternate companies. The submitting identifies Khaldoun al-Dan because the proprietor of Istanbul-based al-Kahira Trade and says Israel designated the enterprise on December 3, 2025, as an alter ego or successor of the Gaza-based Dubai Firm for Trade.
Based on the designation as described in the grievance, al-Kahira operated in Turkey and Gaza and was utilized by Hamas and the PIJ to switch funds for terrorist actions.
The plaintiffs allege that Dubai Firm for Trade performed not less than $22 million in cryptocurrency transactions with Binance accounts earlier than October 7, 2023, and not less than $26 million afterward.
An extra Turkey-based connection includes the Shamlakh household’s monetary companies. The submitting reproduces a January 22, 2024, US Treasury designation assertion figuring out Al-Markaziya Li-Siarafa and Arab China Buying and selling Firm as companies primarily based in Gaza and Turkey and owned by Zuhair Shamlakh.
The Treasury assertion quoted in the grievance describes Al-Markaziya, previously Al-Mutahadun for Trade, as facilitating tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from the IRGC’s Quds Power to Hamas and the PIJ. It identifies Alaa Shamlakh as the only worker and officer of Al-Markaziya’s Turkish department and says he and Ahmed Shamlakh have been concerned in transferring cash to Hamas.
Turkey additionally seems in the grievance’s account of Iranian oil income laundering by way of Zedcex and Zedxion, companies the plaintiffs hyperlink to Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani.
Citing printed reporting, the submitting alleges that illicit Iranian oil proceeds handed by way of Turkish banks into Zedcex and subsequently right into a Binance account belonging to its Dubai subsidiary. The account used Emirati and Turkish financial institution accounts below names together with Zedpay Digital Software program System, ZEDX DMCC, BZ Group and Solmaz Bani.
In a separate alleged gold-smuggling community, the grievance identifies Turkey and the United Arab Emirates as locations for Venezuelan gold related to Raed Abib Habib, a Syrian nationwide with Venezuelan identification papers. It alleges that the community used Binance to settle gold transactions benefiting Hezbollah and the IRGC. Habib’s account was allegedly accessed from Turkey amongst quite a few different nations.
Taken collectively, the allegations describe Turkey as a location for alternate companies, account entry, banking transactions and gold buying and selling inside overlapping networks. The plaintiffs argue that the accounts’ transaction patterns, links to designated entities and continued entry to Binance fashioned a part of a monetary infrastructure that materially assisted terrorist organizations. They search compensatory damages, statutory treble damages, authorized prices and a jury trial.
The IRGC, Hamas and PIJ networks have operated freely in Turkey, tapping the nation’s monetary, banking and company sectors, whereas the federal government of Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which brazenly backs Hamas, has allowed these actions to proceed unhindered. No authorized motion has been taken in opposition to the illicit financing of Hamas networks in Turkey. The final legal investigation into the IRGC Quds Power’s Turkish community, referred to as Tevhid Selam, was thwarted by the federal government in 2014, permitting Iranian brokers and their Turkish belongings to stroll free.
