Overview
- Documents reviewed by Reuters on Monday show Binance provided Russian investigators with personal identification and transaction records that were used as evidence in terrorism financing charges against Yuri Belenkiy.
- The records reportedly included Belenkiy’s passport copy, Bulgarian residency permit, date of birth, address, phone number and a file linking his account to crypto transfers to wallets promoted by exiled critic Arkady Babchenko.
- Binance says it cooperates with lawful law enforcement requests and has defended its actions while noting it announced a full exit from Russia in 2023 after selling its local business to CommEX; Reuters found a Binance page directing Russian agencies to case@binanceholdings.ru.
- Legal experts say the transfer could raise GDPR issues if Belenkiy’s Binance account was registered as an EU resident because the EU does not recognize Russia as having adequate data protection and no European regulator has publicly ruled on the matter.
- The case shows how custody exchanges can link blockchain transfers to real identities, a mechanism that has led to prosecutions of donors to Ukrainian causes and could prompt further scrutiny of exchanges’ handling of historic data and cross‑border requests.