WSJ Seeks Dismissal of Binance Defamation Lawsuit Over Compliance Reports

The Wall Street Journal is asking a federal judge to dismiss Binance's defamation lawsuit over three reports that accused the cryptocurrency exchange of weakening its internal compliance efforts and allowing more than $1 billion in transactions linked to sanctioned Iranian entities.

Binance claims the reports falsely implied that investigators were fired for examining transactions linked to sanctioned Iranian entities, but the Wall Street Journal argues that Binance has failed to show actual malice and that similar reporting by other major news outlets supports its case.

Judge Paul Engelmayer questioned Binance over 22 allegedly defamatory statements and took the dismissal motion under submission. The Wall Street Journal argued that receiving denials from the subject of an investigation does not establish that reporters knew their work was false.