New York Prosecutors Seek $61,000,000 Crypto Forfeiture From Iranian Military Oil Sales

Federal prosecutors have filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking approximately $61 million in cryptocurrency generated by black-market sales of sanctioned Iranian oil.

The proceeds were intended to finance Iran’s government and military components, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terrorist organization, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Says Deputy U.S. Attorney Sean S. Buckley,

“The Government of Iran relies on black-market sales of sanctioned crude oil to fund its military and foster terrorism in the Middle East and around the world, along with other malign efforts to develop a nuclear program and ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear payloads.

As alleged in the complaint filed today, the Government of Iran used a network of cryptocurrency actors in China and elsewhere to launder more than $1.5 billion in illicit oil money intended to benefit the Iranian military and the terror-designated IRGC. 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.”

Two Chinese firms known as Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale allegedly shifted oil proceeds through Binance accounts in the United Arab Emirates.

The companies also moved tens of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system, the complaint alleges.

Those claims remain unproven until a court awards a judgment in favor of the United States.

The FBI New York Counterintelligence and Espionage Division handled the investigation.

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The post New York Prosecutors Seek $61,000,000 Crypto Forfeiture From Iranian Military Oil Sales appeared first on The Daily Hodl.