U.S. DOJ seeks $61M in alleged Iran oil crypto proceeds

U.S. prosecutors have filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking $61.2 million in frozen USDT allegedly tied to black-market Iranian oil sales. Summary U.S. prosecutors seek forfeiture of $61.2 million in USDT across ten TRON addresses, records show. Prosecutors allege seven linked wallets moved more than $1.5 billion from sanctioned Iranian oil sales. Tether has frozen all ten targeted wallets, which collectively held 61.19 million USDT, prosecutors said. A September 14 seizure warrant authorizes transferring the targeted USDT into an FBI-controlled hardware wallet. Binance previously said it offboarded Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust after separate internal compliance reviews. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Sept. 14 action targets cryptocurrency that prosecutors allege was intended to benefit Iran’s government and military bodies, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The filing is a civil case against the assets themselves, and the Justice Department says the underlying allegations remain unproven unless a court enters judgment for the United States. Court records add an important detail to the announcement: the targete...