US Targets Iranian Crypto Exchange and $61 Million in Allegedly Laundered Funds
The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has taken action against an Iranian digital asset exchange called BitBank, which is controlled by a sanctioned financier. According to OFAC, since June, Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority has used BitBank to transfer payments received from black-market sales of sanctioned Iranian crude oil and petroleum products to the Iranian regime.
The US Attorney's Office has also filed a civil lawsuit against approximately $61 million in cryptocurrency allegedly derived from these black-market oil sales. The funds are accused of being laundered through Chinese companies' cryptocurrency trading accounts back to the Iranian government, which includes Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that 'the designations of Iranian digital asset infrastructure make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC's reach.' The US Department of Justice has also targeted cryptocurrency proceeds from these black-market sales.