- Law enforcement documents reviewed by Reuters show Binance answered a Russian request with a customer’s date of birth, address, phone number, passport number and copies of two identity documents.
- Yuri Belenkiy, a 49-year-old IT specialist, is in a Russian jail awaiting trial, accused of sending more than US$700 to Ukrainian military fundraisers.
- Binance told Reuters it cooperates with lawful requests, and declined to comment on whether the disclosure breached EU data protection law.
Turns out Binance handed Russian investigators the identity and transaction details of a customer who donated to Ukrainian fundraising campaigns, and Russian prosecutors used the material to charge him with terrorism financing.
According to a Reuters report, Russia’s Investigative Committee said on 13 October 2025 that Yuri Belenkiy, a 49-year-old IT specialist with a Russian passport and Bulgarian residency permit, sent more than US$700 (AU$980) between January 2023 and March 2024 to the Ukrainian military and the group known as the Azov Brigade and Azov Regiment, which Moscow designates a terrorist organisation.
He was detained in September 2025 and is awaiting trial.
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Full Binance Cooperation
Investigators asked Binance for his transaction history, according to the documents, and it replied with transfer details plus his date of birth, address, telephone number and passport number, and copies of both identity documents.
The Investigative Committee also asked Binance to identify others who sent funds to the same wallet, advertised in an online appeal by exiled Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko; the documents do not show the outcome. They were obtained by The First Department, which supports people prosecuted in Russian political cases.
Binance wrote in April 2022 that it “reserves the right to reject law enforcement requests should they not stand up to legal scrutiny; this applies to all jurisdictions including Russia”, and that it had placed certain restrictions on requests originating from Russia.
The company agreed on 27 September 2023 to sell its entire Russian business to CommEX with no ongoing revenue split and no option to buy it back. “Operating in Russia is not compatible with Binance’s compliance strategy,” Chief Compliance Officer Noah Perlman stated at the time.
The Data Protection Question
“We cooperate with lawful information requests from law enforcement globally, subject to applicable legal, privacy and regulatory requirements,” a Binance spokesperson told Reuters, adding the company does not determine charges or decide how governments use information.
Mike Bystrov, founder of law firm Stellar Consulting and a former member of the legal team that represented Binance in Russia, said the exchange was under no obligation to hand over the data and may, in fact, have been obligated not to.
Reuters reported previously that Binance’s regional boss met Russian financial monitoring officials in 2021 who sought help identifying customers donating Bitcoin to Alexei Navalny; Binance said then it had never been contacted by Russian authorities about him.
Binance Australia began collecting sender and recipient details on every transfer on 1 July under AUSTRAC’s Travel Rule.
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