U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, on Tuesday opened a probe into alleged sanctions violations at crypto exchange Binance, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Blumenthal, who represents Connecticut, sent Binance a letter asking about the $1.7 billion allegedly transferred from accounts on the platform to Iran-linked organizations, including Yemen’s Houthi militants. The violations were identified by internal Binance investigators who were subsequently dismissed, according to several news reports. The world’s largest crypto exchange denied the allegations in an email to CoinDesk.

“The New York Times’ prior reporting is wrong. Binance has strict KYC (know-your-customer)…