Federal prosecutors in New York have moved to confiscate about $61 million in cryptocurrency they describe as revenue from unsanctioned Iranian crude and petroleum sales.
The civil forfeiture complaint, filed September 14, 2026 by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), names the digital assets themselves rather than any exchange. Binance is not listed as a defendant.
According to the government’s account, two China-linked firms used trading accounts on Binance to convert and move money generated by black-market oil deals.
Blessed Trust Limited portrayed itself as a digital asset custody or wealth management business.
Hexa Whale Trading Limited presented itself as a commodities broker.
Prosecutors say both companies worked with Chinese oil and petroleum buyers and offered conversion services that turned conventional payments into crypto.
Those balances, the complaint alleges, were then forwarded to Iranian agents, proxies, money-service businesses, and an Iranian exchange.
Officials treat the $61 million as only one segment of a much larger flow. Investigators say they mapped a cluster of related unhosted wallets that received and redistributed more than $1.5 billion tied to illicit Iranian oil over time.
Some of those transfers, they claim, reached intermediaries linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the United States designates as a terrorist organization.
Deputy US Attorney Sean S. Buckley said the filing is intended to keep the money from supporting military operations and attacks against the United States and its partners.
He argued that Tehran depends on covert oil sales to fund its armed forces, regional proxies, and other prohibited programs, including nuclear and missile work.
The complaint also alleges that the two companies used the US financial system to send and receive tens of millions of dollars while misrepresenting their true purpose to banks and crypto service providers.
Blessed Trust, prosecutors say, marketed itself as a legitimate custodian while handling fiat-to-crypto conversions connected to Iran-linked trades.
Hexa Whale, they add, offered similar services under the guise of ordinary commodities brokerage.
Neither firm had issued a detailed public response when the action was announced.
Binance is not accused of wrongdoing in this case.
The company said it does not allow transactions with sanctioned people, continues to work with law enforcement, and will investigate, restrict, freeze, or close accounts when sanctions or illicit-finance risks appear.
It has also said the two named firms were removed after internal compliance reviews.
Earlier in 2026, Binance rejected related public allegations as false and defamatory.
The present lawsuit therefore targets the tokens and the alleged Chinese intermediaries rather than the platform’s own legal exposure.
The episode sits against a longer enforcement backdrop.
In 2023 Binance pleaded guilty to US charges involving anti-money-laundering and sanctions failures and paid a multi-billion-dollar penalty.
Separate reporting and Senate interest earlier this year had already focused attention on Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale.
Civil forfeiture allows the government to seek title to property it claims is proceeds of specified offenses without first obtaining a criminal conviction of a particular person.
Some accounts of the filing indicate the assets at issue include frozen Tether held at blockchain addresses, with a seizure warrant authorizing transfer into government-controlled wallets.
If the court grants the request, the targeted cryptocurrency would pass into US custody.
Prosecutors framed the case as part of a wider campaign to interrupt revenue streams that they say underwrite Iran’s military and proxy activity.
The allegations remain unproven in court, and any claimant will have an opportunity to contest the forfeiture. The filing marks a concrete attempt to capture a slice of what officials describe as a billion-dollar crypto pipeline built around sanctioned Iranian oil.