US Seeks Forfeiture of $61 Million in Crypto Tied to Iranian Oil Sales

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan filed a civil forfeiture complaint on Sept. 14 seeking about $61 million in cryptocurrency that they allege came from black-market sales of sanctioned Iranian crude oil and petroleum products, according to Iran International, which reported the filing on Sept. 15. The case was brought by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, according to the same report.

"Today's action demonstrates our determination to deprive the Government of Iran and its terrorist proxies of the illegal money they rely on to threaten the lives and safety of the citizens of the United States and elsewhere," Deputy US Attorney Sean Buckley said, as quoted by Iran International. Buckley added that Iran used what he called a network of cryptocurrency actors in China and elsewhere to wash more than $1.5 billion in illicit oil money meant to benefit the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to that report.

The forfeiture target is Tether's USDT stablecoin, reported Cointelegraph on Sept. 15. Prosecutors allege the funds were intended to finance the Iranian government and military parts, including the Revolutionary Guards, according to Iran International. The complaint treats the tokens as proceeds of sanctions evasion and money movement tied to oil deals, reported Cointelegraph.

At the center of the complaint are two companies named Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, reported the Straits Times on Sept. 15. Prosecutors said the two used trading accounts on Binance as part of a plan to move oil proceeds to Iran, its agents and proxies, where the money would support military and terrorist acts, according to the Straits Times. Cointelegraph described both companies as incorporated in Hong Kong and said they moved proceeds from oil sold to buyers in China, according to its Sept. 15 report.

The broader network described in the filing handled far more than the amount now targeted. Prosecutors allege that related addresses received and passed along more than $1.5 billion, including transfers to money-transfer businesses linked to the Revolutionary Guards, other cryptocurrency addresses and an Iranian exchange, reported Cointelegraph. The Straits Times gave the same $1.5 billion figure and said the two entities presented themselves as a wealth management firm and a commodities broker, according to its report.

Prosecutors also allege the pair used the US financial system to send and receive tens of millions of dollars as part of the operation, reported the Straits Times. The complaint says accounts holding the oil proceeds sent crypto to an Iranian crypto exchange and to money transmitters described as fronts for the Revolutionary Guards, according to the same report. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment, reported the Straits Times.

The frozen tokens

The $61 million at issue is a slice of that larger flow. Tether froze about 61.19 million USDT across 10 addresses on the Tron network in 2025, reported Cointelegraph, citing the complaint. Prosecutors allege those addresses held black-market oil proceeds tied to the Iranian military network, according to the same report.

The complaint describes a specific custody path. It says a seizure warrant authorizes the FBI to take custody by having Tether destroy the frozen tokens and issue replacements of equal value for transfer to an FBI-controlled hardware wallet, reported Cointelegraph. That step would move control of the value from the frozen addresses to wallets held by the government while the court case proceeds, according to the same account.

The filing does not establish ownership yet. A civil forfeiture complaint is only an allegation, and the claims have not been proven, reported Iran International. The United States would obtain permanent ownership only if a court enters a forfeiture judgment in its favor, reported Cointelegraph. Cointelegraph said it had contacted Tether for comment and had not received a response by publication, according to its report.

Binance response

Prosecutors did not accuse Binance of wrongdoing, reported the Straits Times. The exchange said it did not permit transactions with sanctioned people, according to the same report. Binance said it would keep cooperating with law enforcement and that where sanctions or illicit-finance risk appeared it would investigate, restrict or freeze accounts where appropriate, remove users and report to the relevant authorities, as quoted in that report.

A Binance spokesperson gave a similar account to Cointelegraph, saying the exchange did not permit transactions with sanctioned individuals and would continue cooperating with law enforcement, reported Cointelegraph. The spokesperson said the case was not filed against the exchange and did not allege wrongdoing by Binance, according to the same report.

Binance has said it removed both named entities before press reports about Iran-linked flows appeared earlier in 2026, reported the Straits Times. Blessed Trust did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and contact details for Hexa Whale could not immediately be found, according to the same report.

The filing follows earlier press scrutiny. In February, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported on an internal Binance review that found more than $1 billion had moved through the platform to Iranian entities with links to terrorist groups, reported the Straits Times. After those reports, Binance said in blog posts that it cooperated with law enforcement officials and that its compliance program was sound, according to the same report.

Binance has faced US enforcement before. In 2023 the Justice Department charged the company and its co-founder over anti-money laundering controls, reported the Straits Times. Prosecutors said at the time that terrorist groups, people in sanctioned countries and cybercriminals had used the platform to move hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the same report. Binance paid a $4.3 billion fine to resolve that case, co-founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to violating banking laws and served four months in prison, according to the same report. President Donald Trump granted Zhao a pardon in 2025, according to the same report.

Sanctions backdrop

The forfeiture claim arrives during a wider US pressure campaign on Iranian oil revenue. In August the Treasury Department expanded its Iran sanctions framework to cover the country's digital asset sector, a step that lets US authorities target foreign people and companies operating in or supporting that sector, reported Cointelegraph. At the time, Treasury alleged that UAE-based broker Ivan Obukhov had processed more than $100 million in crypto payments since 2023 to help Iranian oil sales for the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, according to the same report.

The Justice Department filing is a civil action against the assets rather than a criminal charge against the companies named in the press accounts, according to Iran International and Cointelegraph. That form of case asks a judge to decide whether the property is linked to the alleged acts and should pass to the government. No court ruling on the $61 million had been reported as of Sept. 15, and the complaint materials cited in press coverage did not state a hearing date, according to those reports.

For now, the tokens remain frozen while prosecutors pursue the court order. The complaint asks the court to grant forfeiture of the 61.19 million USDT described in the filing, with FBI custody through the token destruction and reissue process Tether would carry out, reported Cointelegraph. Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale have not publicly responded to the allegations in the coverage reviewed, and Tether had not responded to Cointelegraph by its publication time, according to that report.