Binance handed Russia’s Investigative Committee the full account history of a Russian IT specialist last year, and prosecutors used that data to charge him with financing terrorism over crypto donations sent to Ukraine, Reuters reported on August 17, citing law enforcement documents.
The exchange has told the public since 2023 that it exited the Russian market entirely. The account holder, Yuriy Belenkiy, remains jailed in Moscow awaiting trial.
How Belenkiy’s Data Reached Russian Investigators
Belenkiy, an IT director at electronics distributor DiHouse, was detained at Sheremetyevo Airport in September 2025 on an administrative charge before Russian investigators reclassified the case and charged him under the country’s terrorism financing statute the following month, according to Reuters, which reviewed the underlying law enforcement documents.
Russia’s Investigative Committee requested Belenkiy’s records from Binance in October 2025 after tracing a wallet address that exiled journalist Arkady Babchenko had published for fundraising.
Binance responded with Belenkiy’s passport scans, account balances, deposit and withdrawal records, Binance Pay transactions, peer-to-peer trade history and login data including device type and location, according to court materials reviewed by rights group Pervyi Otdel and reported by iStories.
Investigators allege Belenkiy sent 15 transfers totaling 1,680.69 USDT, worth about 140,000 rubles, to Babchenko’s address and Ukraine-linked recipients, including a group tied to the Azov Brigade and Ukrainian exchange Kuna.
Binance told Reuters it does not hand over user data without a court order, even as the Belenkiy disclosure shows the exchange complying with a standard law enforcement email request months earlier.
What This Case Means for Crypto Donors
Binance said on August 14 that it would begin applying European Union sanctions against Russia, a move our crypto news coverage has tracked as more exchanges face pressure over Russia-linked accounts, and the Belenkiy case raises the question of how far that sanctions pledge reaches in practice.
Anyone who has sent crypto to a Ukraine-linked fundraiser through a major exchange should treat this case as a reminder that transaction and login histories do not stay private once a government requests them.
Why Belenkiy’s Upcoming Trial Could Set a Precedent
Belenkiy’s case is now being prepared for trial, according to Pervyi Otdel, and a conviction would mark one of the first instances where exchange data directly produced a terrorism financing charge tied to Ukraine donations.
Reuters previously reported that Binance’s then-Russia representative, Gleb Kostarev, discussed sharing data on Bitcoin donors to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with Russia’s financial intelligence unit back in 2021, a claim Binance denied at the time.
What this means for you: A public exit from a country is not the same as a public promise about how that country’s data requests get handled, so if you have used a major exchange while it still operated in a sanctioned country, do not assume that exchange’s later exit erased the records tied to your account.
