U.S. DOJ seeks $61M in alleged Iran oil crypto proceeds

U.S. prosecutors have filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking $61.2 million in frozen USDT allegedly tied to black-market Iranian oil sales.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Sept. 14 action targets cryptocurrency that prosecutors allege was intended to benefit Iran’s government and military bodies, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The filing is a civil case against the assets themselves, and the Justice Department says the underlying allegations remain unproven unless a court enters judgment for the United States.

Court records add an important detail to the announcement: the targeted USDT had already been frozen before prosecutors filed the case. The ten TRON addresses held exactly 61,192,367.59 USDT when the government submitted its complaint.

U.S. DOJ case targets 10 already-frozen USDT wallets

The verified forfeiture complaint, filed as United States v. All USD Tether Held in the Following Cryptocurrency Addresses, case 1:26-cv-08010, names ten TRON addresses as defendants in rem. Two addresses were frozen on July 26, 2025, while eight others were frozen on June 15, 2025, according to the filing.

Balances ranged from 1 million USDT to more than 12.75 million USDT per address. Prosecutors said Tether had frozen all ten by the time of the Sept. 14 complaint, leaving the funds unable to move through ordinary USDT transfers.

A seizure warrant issued Sept. 14 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang authorizes the FBI to bring the assets into government custody. The complaint states that Tether is expected to burn the tokens held at the targeted addresses, issue replacement USDT of equal value and transfer those tokens to the U.S. government. Prosecutors said the replacement funds would be stored in an FBI-controlled hardware wallet in the Southern District of New York.

Seizure and forfeiture are separate stages. The warrant permits investigators to take custody of the property, while the civil case asks the federal court to award ownership of the USDT to the government under federal forfeiture laws.

Prosecutors allege a $1.5 billion Iran oil network

The government alleges Hong Kong-incorporated Blessed Trust Limited and Hexa Whale Trading Limited used accounts at Binance to help convert proceeds from Iranian crude oil and petroleum sales into cryptocurrency. Prosecutors describe Blessed Trust as presenting itself to financial firms as a wealth-management or virtual-asset custody provider and Hexa Whale as presenting itself as a commodities broker.

According to the complaint, at least seven linked addresses labeled “Entity A” received and distributed more than $1.5 billion that investigators believe came from Iranian oil sales. Prosecutors said they used transaction flows, wallet activation records and movements of USDT and TRX to link the addresses.

The filing alleges Entity A sent funds to Iranian exchange Nobitex, IRGC-related cryptocurrency addresses and money transmitters that investigators identified as IRGC fronts. One Entity A address beginning with TU6Vd was linked in the complaint to a financial network controlled by Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars, an Iranian company already sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury.

Treasury has separately described Sepehr Energy as an oil-sales arm tied to Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff. OFAC sanctioned the company in 2023 and has repeatedly targeted firms and vessels accused of helping it sell Iranian oil to customers abroad.

The new complaint contains details involving the U.S. banking system. Prosecutors allege a Hong Kong company identified only as Company-1 sent approximately $37.15 million to Hexa Whale in 11 wire transfers during March and April 2024. Another roughly $443.49 million allegedly moved from Company-1 to Blessed Trust through 32 transactions between November 2024 and March 2025.

Internal Hexa Whale transfers worth approximately $22.2 million and another $5.3 million allegedly passed through U.S.-based correspondent accounts, according to the filing. The government says the companies lacked OFAC licenses for the transactions described in the complaint.

Binance has disputed earlier Iran-linked allegations

Binance had publicly challenged allegations involving Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale months before the new DOJ filing. In a March 6 response to a U.S. Senate inquiry, the exchange called several media claims “demonstrably false, unsupported by credible evidence, and defamatory.”

The exchange said law-enforcement requests prompted investigations into transactions connected with the two firms. Binance said it offboarded Hexa Whale on Aug. 13, 2025 and removed Blessed Trust in January 2026 after completing separate reviews.

Binance maintained in March that, to its knowledge, no Binance account had transacted directly with an Iran-based entity. The company said customers residing or located in Iran are prohibited from using its platform and pointed to its know-your-customer, sanctions-screening and transaction-monitoring systems.

The Justice Department’s new civil complaint alleges the two companies used Binance trading accounts as part of the network, but the filing is directed against the USDT held in the ten wallets. It does not charge Binance with a criminal offense in this proceeding.

Earlier congressional scrutiny covered the same entities. Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked Binance in April to provide dates showing when Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust opened accounts, when suspicious transfers occurred, when law enforcement was notified and when the accounts were removed. The senator’s questions challenged Binance’s characterization of the flows as indirect.

Binance’s formal denial of the Iran sanctions allegations in March, including its account of how the two companies were investigated and offboarded.

Iran crypto enforcement has expanded through 2026

The forfeiture case follows several U.S. actions targeting alleged Iranian use of digital assets. In June, OFAC designated Nobitex and three other Iranian exchanges, saying Nobitex had processed transactions connected with the IRGC and sanctioned actors. Treasury said Nobitex handled more than 50% of Iranian digital-asset inflows during 2025.

In related coverage,crypto.news reported on U.S. sanctions against Shelbit and Aban Tether in August after Treasury accused the platforms of processing funds tied to Iran and the IRGC. The administrative sanctions were separate from the current SDNY forfeiture proceeding.

Treasury then launched Operation Economic Outcast on Aug. 24, saying the campaign would target financial channels, overseas companies and facilitators accused of helping Iran sell oil or evade sanctions. As crypto.news reported at the time, digital-asset activity was explicitly included among the financial channels covered by the Treasury campaign.

On Sept. 14, the same day prosecutors filed the $61.2 million USDT case, Treasury separately sanctioned Russia’s VTB Bank over what OFAC described as involvement in Iranian sanctions evasion through correspondent relationships with sanctioned Iranian banks. Treasury did not identify the VTB action as part of the USDT forfeiture complaint.

The SDNY complaint seeks forfeiture under statutes covering proceeds traceable to sanctions violations, property involved in money laundering and assets connected with federal terrorism offenses. DOJ expressly states that a civil forfeiture complaint is an allegation against property and that the claims are not proven until a federal court enters judgment in favor of the United States.