By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-16 21:20:19 | Updated at 2026-09-16 21:56:09
46 minutes ago
Two Chinese companies used cryptocurrency accounts to launder proceeds from illegal Iranian oil sales, according to a civil forfeiture complaint filed Sept. 14 by U.S. prosecutors seeking roughly $61 million in cryptocurrency.
The
complaint, filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, alleged that Iran “used a network of cryptocurrency actors in China and elsewhere to launder more than $1.5 billion in illicit oil money,” according to Deputy U.S. Attorney Sean S. Buckley.
These funds were intended to finance the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, Buckley added.
“Today we are seizing and seeking to forfeit more than $61 million of the Government of Iran’s money, which otherwise would have promoted hostile military action and terrorist attacks against the U.S. and our allies,” Buckley said.
The complaint targeted about 61.2 million USDT, a cryptocurrency whose value is tied to the U.S. dollar, held across 10 cryptocurrency addresses on the
Tronblockchain network.
The stablecoin Tether froze seven of the targeted addresses in June 2025 and the remaining three in July 2025, according to the complaint.
The two Chinese companies—Blessed Trust Limited and Hexa Whale Trading Limited, both incorporated in Hong Kong—allegedly used trading accounts at the United Arab Emirates-based exchange Binance “to conduct cryptocurrency transactions representing the proceeds of black-market sales of Iranian oil to buyers in China,” according to the complaint.
The proceeds were then “funneled to the Government of Iran, its agents, and its proxies to finance terrorist activities or other activities of the Iranian government, in violation of applicable U.S. sanction, terrorism financing, and money laundering laws,” the complaint states.
Blessed Trust represented itself as a company offering “wealth management or virtual asset custodial services,” the complaint stated, but it received and transferred the proceeds and provided “on-ramp services,” which prosecutors described as allowing customers to exchange fiat currency for cryptocurrency. The services included the use of U.S.-based cryptocurrency issuers, according to the complaint.
Hexa Whale represented itself as a company engaged in “commodities brokering,” but it also provided services similar to those offered by Blessed Trust, the complaint stated.
At least seven of the interconnected cryptocurrency addresses, grouped under the label “Entity A,” were used to move more than $1.5 billion in proceeds, according to the complaint.
Prosecutors added that the proceeds moved through this group of addresses to IRGC-related money services businesses, IRGC-related cryptocurrency addresses, and an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange called Nobitex.
Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale used these transactions and the cryptocurrency addresses to “obfuscate the nature, source, and ownership of the funds involved,” prosecutors said.
The two Chinese companies have also “used the U.S. financial system to send or receive tens of millions of dollars as part of this scheme,” and their clients include companies in China’s petroleum and petroleum products sector, according to prosecutors.
Binance was not accused of wrongdoing in the complaint.
“This case was not filed against Binance and does not allege wrongdoing by Binance. Binance has zero tolerance for sanctions violations or illicit activity, and Binance did not permit any transactions with sanctioned individuals,” a Binance spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email on Sept. 16.
“We will continue to cooperate with law enforcement on this matter, and where sanctions or illicit-finance risk is identified, we will always investigate, restrict or freeze accounts where appropriate, offboard users, and report to relevant authorities.”
The case was not filed against the two Chinese companies either.
The complaint highlighted China’s role in the purchase of Iranian oil.
“Some of the most significant purchasers of black-market Iranian oil are what are known as Chinese ‘teapot’ refineries, which are semi-independent or independent refineries based in or otherwise associated with China,” the complaint stated.
In March 2025, the United States for the
first timespecifically targeted a Chinese teapot refinery as part of its sanctions campaign against Iran’s oil trade.
Another Chinese teapot refinery was
sanctionedin April, in one of the latest U.S. actions targeting the sector.
Also in April, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a warning to financial institutions of sanctions risks associated with Chinese independent teapot refineries in China, particularly in eastern China’s Shandong Province, due to their “continued role in importing and refining Iranian crude oil.”
