U.S. civil forfeiture case over Iran oil crypto proceeds

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking roughly $61 million in USDT held across ten TRON addresses, identifying the precise balance at filing as 61,192,367.59 USDT. Prosecutors allege those tokens are tied to proceeds from black‑market Iranian oil sales and say a cluster of at least seven linked wallets, described in the filing as “Entity A,” received and moved more than $1.5 billion allegedly associated with that trade.

The complaint names two Hong Kong–incorporated companies, Blessed Trust Limited and Hexa Whale Trading Limited, and alleges they used trading accounts on Binance to convert proceeds from Iranian crude and petroleum sales into crypto. According to the filing, Entity A sent funds onward to the Iranian exchange Nobitex, to addresses tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and to money‑transmission networks that investigators identified as IRGC fronts. One Entity A address was linked to funds controlled by Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars, a company the U.S. Treasury previously sanctioned.

Court records add operational details: two of the ten TRON addresses were frozen on July 26, 2025, and eight others on June 15, 2025. Prosecutors say Tether had frozen all ten targeted wallets by the Sept. 14 filing. A magistrate judge issued a seizure warrant authorizing the FBI to transfer the targeted USDT into an FBI‑controlled hardware wallet in the Southern District of New York; the complaint explains that seizure and civil forfeiture are separate stages and that the government must obtain a court judgment to win title to the assets.

The filing also cites wire movements and banking connections. It alleges a Hong Kong entity identified as Company‑1 sent roughly $37.15 million to Hexa Whale in 11 wire transfers during March and April 2024 and about $443.49 million to Blessed Trust across 32 transactions between November 2024 and March 2025. Internal Hexa Whale transfers of about $22.2 million and another $5.3 million allegedly passed through U.S. correspondent accounts. Prosecutors contend the companies lacked OFAC licenses for the described transactions.

Binance is not named as a defendant in the forfeiture complaint. The exchange previously denied direct links to Iran‑based entities, said it offboarded Hexa Whale on Aug. 13, 2025 and Blessed Trust in Jan. 2026, and highlighted its compliance controls. The forfeiture action ties into a broader U.S. campaign, Treasury’s Operation Economic Outcast, and follows earlier OFAC designations and enforcement against Iran‑linked platforms. The complaint stresses that its allegations are claims against property and remain unproven unless a court awards judgment to the United States.