DOJ Says Companies Funneled $1.5 Billion Through Binance to Fund Iran's Military Oil Network

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a verified complaint for forfeiture on 14 September 2026, Case 1:26-cv-08010. The civil in rem action, 26 Civ. 8010, asks the court to forfeit all USDT in 10 listed Tron addresses under 18 USC 981.

This is a civil forfeiture complaint against tokens already frozen. It is not a criminal indictment of Binance, and it is not a new Binance guilty plea. The 2023 Binance plea is background only.

Prosecutors allege a cluster of at least seven interrelated addresses, labeled Entity A, received and distributed more than about $1.5 billion from illicit Iranian oil sales. The live ask in this filing is smaller. Tether froze the 10 defendant addresses on 15 June and 26 July 2025. Those wallets now hold about 61,192,367.59 USDT, the slice Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang authorized the FBI to seize on or about 14 September 2026.

Hong Kong companies Blessed Trust Limited and Hexa Whale Trading Limited allegedly used Binance trading accounts to move oil-sale proceeds. The complaint says Blessed Trust presented itself as wealth management or virtual-asset custody, and Hexa Whale as commodities brokering. Prosecutors say both instead provided fiat-to-crypto on-ramps for Iranian crude and petroleum sales to buyers in China.

The complaint alleges those proceeds were destined to benefit the Government of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Armed Forces General Staff, and Sepehr Energy, a sanctioned SDGT oil front. Entity A addresses allegedly sent crypto to the Iranian exchange Nobitex and to money transmitters prosecutors describe as IRGC fronts. Those IRGC and terrorism-financing claims are allegations in the complaint, not findings after a trial.

An unnamed Hong Kong client, Company-1, allegedly wired about $37.15 million to Hexa Whale in March and April 2024 and about $443.49 million to Blessed Trust between 13 November 2024 and 5 March 2025. The wires went through a US correspondent bank headquartered in the Southern District, without OFAC licenses. Those fiat transfers sit outside the frozen $61.2 million.

CryptoSlate reports the warrant uses Tether's burn-and-reissue path so the FBI can take custody without the original private keys. Engadget and CryptoSlate both note Binance is not the defendant. Binance CEO Richard Teng said the case was not filed against Binance, that the exchange has zero tolerance for sanctions violations, and that it is cooperating.

Related geopolitical tape includes AWS saying Bahrain and UAE cloud zones cannot be restored and US agencies accusing DeepSeek and Alibaba of AI model theft. The Flock camera software theft is a separate surveillance story from the same week.

Exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and compliance teams should treat oil-linked Tron USDT corridors into Nobitex and IRGC-linked transmitters as high-priority freeze-and-report pathways, and demand documented OFAC screening on any fiat-to-crypto on-ramp that claims commodities or custody work in Hong Kong.