The U.S. Department of Justice says it is targeting illicit cryptocurrency revenue linked to Iran's military.
The Justice Department has filed a civil forfeiture complaint against $61 million U.S. in cryptocurrency proceeds linked to Iran's black-market sales of crude oil and petroleum products.
The filing claims the funds are being used to support Iran’s military, specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a group the U.S. government has labeled a terrorist organization.
The pursuit of crypto proceeds comes amid escalating missile fire between Iran and the U.S.
The U.S. Justice Department claims that Iran is increasingly using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) to evade economic sanctions and keep trade and money flowing to its regime.
Specifically, the Justice Department said that it has identified a $1.5 billion U.S. network that is moving black-market Iranian oil money through a complex web of cryptocurrency wallets.
The U.S. government claims that Chinese firms are helping to facilitate multi-million-dollar crypto transactions for Iran.
In a surprise, the U.S. Justice Department also said that accounts on the Binance cryptocurrency exchange are being used to launder black-market oil proceeds.
Binance, which is privately held, has denied the accusations and stated that it has zero tolerance for sanctions violations.
