US Seeks Forfeiture of $61 Million in Crypto Linked to Alleged Iranian Oil Scheme

Federal prosecutors on Monday asked a court to forfeit about $61 million in cryptocurrency they say is tied to illicit sales of Iranian crude. The civil complaint alleges the funds were part of a broader scheme that converted black-market oil payments into digital assets and routed them through a network of wallets and trading accounts.

According to the filing, two China-linked firms, Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, presented themselves as wealth management/crypto-custody and commodities-broker operations while converting Iranian oil receipts into cryptocurrency. Prosecutors say those firms used Binance trading accounts and an interconnected wallet cluster — described in the complaint as "Entity A" — which allegedly received and moved more than $1.5 billion in oil proceeds to IRGC-linked businesses, cryptocurrency addresses, and an Iranian exchange.

U.S. officials framed the action as part of efforts to cut off revenue streams that benefit Iran’s government and military; the complaint notes that some of the alleged recipients were linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization. The civil filing does not itself prove wrongdoing, and the government must obtain a court judgment to complete any forfeiture.

The companies named in the complaint previously appeared in a Senate inquiry after Senator Richard Blumenthal sought records in February about alleged Iran-linked transfers involving Binance; Binance has denied wrongdoing related to earlier reports. The filing arrives amid stepped-up measures targeting Iran’s crypto activity — including an August Treasury expansion of sanctioning authority and July actions that led Tether to freeze more than $131 million across four Tron wallets — though the Justice Department said it has not established whether those earlier frozen assets overlap with the funds now targeted.