The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking more than $61 million in cryptocurrency that federal prosecutors say is tied to sales of sanctioned Iranian oil and to money laundering conducted through Binance accounts. The action was filed on September 14 in Manhattan.

According to the complaint, the funds represent proceeds from black-market sales of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products. Prosecutors allege the money ultimately benefited the Iranian government and military-linked entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the United States has long sanctioned.

The filing targets the cryptocurrency itself rather than Binance. That structure is characteristic of civil forfeiture, a legal mechanism that lets the government bring a claim against property it alleges is tied to crime without filing criminal charges. The DOJ has not accused the exchange of participating in the alleged laundering scheme.

How the Alleged Network Operated

Prosecutors identified two China-based companies, Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, as key intermediaries. Both allegedly used Binance trading accounts to move proceeds from Iranian oil transactions into cryptocurrency.

Authorities say the companies presented themselves as legitimate financial or commodities businesses. Prosecutors allege, however, that they helped convert fiat currency into crypto and transferred funds toward Iranian entities and their proxies.

The complaint also identifies a group of interconnected wallets referred to as "Entity A." According to the filing, those addresses received and distributed more than $1.5 billion in alleged Iranian oil proceeds. Mapping wallet clusters like this is possible because cryptocurrency transactions are recorded on public blockchains, giving investigators a traceable record of how funds moved between addresses.

A Broader Financial Network

The case underscores a growing law enforcement focus on cryptocurrency as a channel for sanctions evasion. Prosecutors allege the network relied on both crypto transactions and the U.S. financial system to obscure the source and ownership of the funds.

Because exchanges sit at the boundary between traditional money and crypto, they operate under U.S. anti-money-laundering rules that require controls such as customer checks and suspicious-activity monitoring, making exchange accounts a recurring focal point in sanctions-evasion investigations.

Binance has previously said it detected suspicious activity involving the two entities, removed the related accounts, and cooperated with law enforcement. The exchange has maintained that the funds neither originated on nor ultimately remained on Binance.

The DOJ emphasized that the current action remains a civil forfeiture proceeding. The allegations have not been proven unless a court ultimately enters a judgment in favor of the United States. The case now moves through the civil court process, where the government will need to substantiate its claims before any of the $61 million can be declared forfeit.