US seeks forfeiture of $61 million in cryptocurrency, says it came from Iran's oil sales to Asian buyers

BlockBeats news, September 15 - According to CNBC, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit seeking to forfeit over $61 million in cryptocurrency. The U.S. alleges these funds originated from Iran's sanctions-evading crude oil and petroleum product sales and were ultimately used to support the Iranian government, military, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The complaint states that Iran laundered over $1.5 billion in oil sales proceeds through cryptocurrency participants in Asian countries and elsewhere. Two companies, Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, are accused of using related transaction accounts to process these funds and transferring them to the Iranian government, proxies, or related entities.

U.S. Associate Deputy Attorney General Sean S. Buckley stated that the more than $61 million seized and sought for forfeiture by the U.S. could have been used to support military operations and terrorist activities against the United States and its allies.

The complaint also alleges that Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale provided cryptocurrency fiat on-ramp and off-ramp services to customers and processed related transactions through U.S. cryptocurrency issuers and other channels. Both companies also used the U.S. financial system to send and receive tens of millions of dollars. Neither company could be reached for comment.

Additionally, the complaint states that Tether will burn the crypto tokens at the involved addresses, issue equivalent replacement tokens, and then transfer them to a wallet controlled by the U.S. government.