On Monday, September 14, 2026, the United States government filed a complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking the forfeiture of more than $61 million in USD Tether (USDT), alleging the funds represent proceeds from black-market sales of Iranian crude oil intended to finance Iran’s military apparatus, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated foreign terrorist organization.
The civil forfeiture action, filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, targets ten cryptocurrency addresses on the TRON blockchain collectively holding approximately 61,192,367.59 USDT. According to the complaint, the funds were frozen by Tether between June and July of 2025 after investigators traced them to a broader network of at least seven interrelated addresses — referred to as “Entity A” — that allegedly received and distributed more than $1.5 billion tied to illicit Iranian oil sales.
Prosecutors allege that Iranian oil, often shipped using a “shadow fleet” of tankers to evade sanctions, was sold primarily to Chinese “teapot” refineries, generating proceeds that were funneled through networks of shell companies and cryptocurrency exchanges. The complaint names Hexa Whale Trading Limited and Blessed Trust Limited, both incorporated in Hong Kong, as entities that allegedly misrepresented their business activities — claiming to engage in commodities brokering and wealth management, respectively — while actually processing proceeds from Iranian oil sales and providing “on-ramp” services converting fiat currency into cryptocurrency.
The government also identified an unnamed Hong Kong-based petroleum trading firm, referred to as “Company-1,” as a client of both Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust. Between November 2024 and March 2025, Company-1 allegedly sent approximately $443.49 million to Blessed Trust, and between March and April 2024, sent roughly $37.15 million to Hexa Whale, with the transactions processed through a U.S.-based correspondent bank account in the Southern District of New York. Additional transfers among Hexa Whale’s own accounts, totaling more than $27 million, were also allegedly routed through U.S. financial institutions.
The complaint further connects the funds to Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars Company, an Iranian entity sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2023 for supporting Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff, which oversees oil sales benefiting the IRGC.
The action was authorized following a seizure warrant issued September 14, 2026, by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang, directing that the funds be transferred into an FBI-controlled digital wallet. The government’s filing invokes three separate forfeiture statutes covering proceeds traceable to violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, property involved in money laundering, and assets connected to entities engaged in terrorism-related activity.
Please contact BlockTribune for access to a copy of this filing.
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