U.S. seeks to seize $61 million of crypto it claims are proceeds from Iranian petroleum sales to Chinese buyers — SkimNews
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- The U.S. Attorney's Office for SDNY filed a civil forfeiture complaint targeting $61 million in crypto, alleging Tehran laundered over $1.5 billion in illicit oil money through a network of cryptocurrency actors in China and elsewhere, with proceeds intended to benefit the Iranian military and the IRGC
- Chinese companies Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale allegedly used Binance trading accounts to launder proceeds from black-market Iranian oil sales, funneling funds to Iran's government, agents, and proxies, and used U.S.-based crypto issuers and the U.S. financial system to move tens of millions of dollars
- Binance said it had "zero tolerance" for sanctions violations, claimed it did not permit any transactions with sanctioned individuals, and pledged continued cooperation with law enforcement — a defensive posture despite its cooperation commitment
- Tether Ltd. will "burn" the cryptocurrency tokens held in the target addresses and issue replacement tokens of equal value, which will be transferred into U.S. government custody, converting the seizure into actual government-held assets
- In April, Washington sanctioned an independent Chinese "teapot" refinery and warned financial institutions they could face sanctions for dealing with Chinese refineries that process Iranian oil
- China accounts for more than 80% of Iran's shipped oil in 2025, averaging 1.4 million barrels per day, illustrating the scale of the trade network the DOJ is targeting
Why it matters: DOJ is going after the crypto rails and Chinese intermediaries that keep Iran's sanctioned oil flowing, where China buys 80%+ of Iran's crude at 1.4 million barrels daily. Tether's token "burn and replace" mechanism converts the crypto seizure into actual government custody — a novel enforcement approach against crypto-laundered sanctions evasion.
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