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Two Binance employees faced detention or questioning in the United Arab Emirates in recent weeks during an investigation into possible financial crimes involving the cryptocurrency exchange. Binance said authorities sought statements about third-party fund flows, while no employees faced charges.
The New York Times reported that UAE authorities stopped the employees at airports, citing people familiar with the matter. One mid-level worker spent a night at a Sharjah police station.
Authorities also questioned an official from Binance’s Dubai-based subsidiary at a police station in July. Binance said a ‘small number’ of employees provided standard statements during routine inquiries.
A Binance spokesperson told Benzinga that investigators focused on third-party fund flows rather than the employees themselves. The company said authorities promptly cleared and released everyone who provided statements. The UAE Ministry of Interior did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment. Dubai Police also has not publicly commented on the reported inquiry.
Authorities have not named the employees, while investigators have announced no charges against Binance or its personnel. Could the questioning remain a limited information-gathering exercise as authorities examine outside fund movements?
The latest scrutiny follows several years of regulatory and law enforcement action involving Binance across multiple countries. In 2023, Binance pleaded guilty to US federal charges involving anti-money laundering failures.
The charges also covered failures to register as a money-transmitting business and violations of US sanctions. Binance paid $4.3 billion under the settlement. Founder Changpeng Zhao also pleaded guilty to failing to maintain proper oversight. He later served four months in prison.
The location of the latest inquiry carries operational significance because Binance has steadily expanded its presence in the UAE during the past four years. The exchange gained its first Dubai operating permission in 2022. By July 2023, it became the first virtual asset company to receive an Operational Minimum Viable Product licence from Dubai’s VARA.
Then, in January 2026, Binance.com moved under a full Abu Dhabi Global Market licence. This structure placed its global user base of more than 320 million under one Middle Eastern regulator. The UAE also became a major financial partner. Abu Dhabi’s state-linked investment vehicle MGX invested $2 billion in Binance during 2025.
That deal marked MGX’s first investment in a cryptocurrency company. At the same time, roughly 1,000 Binance employees, or about one-fifth of its global workforce, work in the Emirates. Against that backdrop, airport questioning in Sharjah and Dubai adds regulatory attention to a jurisdiction that has become central to Binance’s global operations.
The UAE incidents follow an earlier case involving Binance staff in Nigeria. Authorities detained executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla in February 2024 after policy discussions in Abuja. Anjarwalla later escaped custody. Gambaryan remained in Kuje Prison for nearly eight months before Nigeria dropped the money laundering case against him in October 2024.
US lawmakers applied sustained pressure during Gambaryan’s detention. After his release, he alleged that Nigerian security officials sought a $150 million bribe to end the case.
Nigerian authorities rejected that accusation. Meanwhile, Binance continued rebuilding its compliance systems after its 2023 US settlement. Earlier this year, Binance reported that its remaining sanctions risk had fallen by 97%. The company linked the reduction to internal reforms and external audits across 20 jurisdictions where it holds authorizations.
Neither the UAE Ministry of Interior nor Dubai Police has publicly detailed the current inquiry. No charges have been filed against Binance or the employees mentioned in the reports.
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