Circle’s stablecoin Tether and USDC dominate the market.Justin Tallis | AFP | Getty Images The United States has filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit against $61 million in cryptocurrency that allegedly came from black market sales of sanctioned Iranian crude oil and petroleum products. The complaint, filed by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, alleges that Tehran used a network of cryptocurrency actors in China and elsewhere to launder more than $1.5 billion in illicit oil money intended to benefit the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. These revenues were intended to finance the Iranian government and its military components. “Today we are seizing and attempting to seize more than $61 million of Iran’s government money, which would otherwise have promoted hostile military actions and terrorist attacks against the United States and our allies,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean S. Buckley said in a statement. Two Chinese companies, called Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, allegedly used trading accounts on the Binance cryptocurrency exchange “to launder proceeds from sales on Iran’s black market.” oil, funneling the illicit funds to the Government of Iran, its agents and/or its proxies, where they were used to finance terrorist and other activities of the Iranian government,” the statement said. “Binance has zero tolerance for sanctions violations or illicit activities, and Binance did not allow any transactions with sanctioned persons,” a Binance spokesperson said. “We will continue to cooperate with law enforcement in this matter, and when sanctions or illicit financing risks are identified, we will always investigate, restrict or “Blessed Trust represents itself as a virtual asset custody or wealth management services company, according to the complaint, but it had received and transferred profits and provided “gateway” services, which allow users to exchange fiat currency for cryptocurrencies. These were carried out including through the use of US-based cryptocurrency issuers. Hexa Whale has also provided similar services, working with Blessed Trust and its affiliates “Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale have also used the U.S. financial system to send or receive tens of millions of dollars as part of this scheme,” the complaint alleges. CNBC was unable to reach Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust for comment. Clients of both companies include companies in the Chinese oil and petroleum products sector. and will issue replacement tokens of the same value, which will be transferred to the custody of the US government, according to the complaint. Tether did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In April, Washington had sanctioned an independent refiner or “teapot” in China, in addition to warning financial institutions that they could face sanctions if they enter into deals with Chinese refineries that process Iranian oil. circumvent sanctions on its oil sales and buy billions of dollars worth of goods from China.” China is reportedly one of the largest buyers of Iranian oil and will account for more than 80% of the oil shipped by Iran in 2025, or an average of 1.4 million barrels per day.
