U.S. Seeks Forfeiture of $61 Million in Crypto Linked to Iranian Black-Market Oil Sales
U.S. prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of approximately $61 million in cryptocurrency allegedly tied to a network that laundered proceeds from black-market sales of sanctioned Iranian crude oil and petroleum products.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced the civil forfeiture complaint on 14 September 2026. Prosecutors allege that the funds represent proceeds intended to benefit the Government of Iran and Iranian military components, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
According to the complaint, two Chinese companies, Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, used trading accounts at a UAE-based cryptocurrency exchange to move proceeds from Iranian oil sales. The government alleges that the companies helped convert fiat currency into cryptocurrency and routed funds through transactions and addresses designed to obscure their source, ownership and control.
Prosecutors said a network of interrelated unhosted cryptocurrency addresses, referred to in the complaint as “Entity A,” received and distributed more than $1.5 billion in proceeds from illicit Iranian oil sales. The addresses allegedly transferred funds to IRGC-related money services businesses, IRGC-linked cryptocurrency addresses and an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange.
The complaint also alleges that Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale used the U.S. financial system to send or receive tens of millions of dollars as part of the scheme. The investigation is being handled by the FBI’s New York Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, with support from several Justice Department units, including its Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section.
The $61 million action is a civil forfeiture proceeding. The Justice Department stressed that a civil forfeiture complaint contains allegations concerning property and that those allegations are not proven unless a court enters judgment in favor of the United States.
