The $61 Million Iran Oil Case Binance Already Denied

Manhattan federal prosecutors filed a civil forfeiture complaint for $61 million in crypto on September 14, saying the coins came from black-market Iranian oil sales that moved through Binance accounts. The filing names two China-based firms, Blessed Trust Limited and Hexa Whale Trading Limited. It does not name Binance as a defendant.

Those are the same two names Senator Richard Blumenthal put to the exchange in the spring, when co-chief executive Richard Teng called the claims false and defamatory. The complaint now treats a slice of that channel as Iranian government money bound for the military, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale Sit at the Center

Deputy U.S. Attorney Sean S. Buckley, announcing the case for the Southern District of New York, tied the coins to oil cash that would otherwise fund attacks and missile work. The FBI’s New York Field Office is on the investigation with his office.

Today’s action demonstrates our determination to deprive the Government of Iran and its terrorist proxies of the illegal money they rely on to threaten the lives and safety of the citizens of the United States and elsewhere.

Sean S. Buckley, Deputy U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York

Prosecutors say Blessed Trust sold itself to banks and crypto firms as a wealth manager and a virtual-asset custodian, while converting oil-linked fiat into tokens, at times through U.S. crypto issuers. Hexa Whale presented itself as a commodities broker and, they say, did similar conversion work. Both listed Chinese oil and petroleum companies among their clients, and both are accused of moving tens of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system along the way.

The defendants in the caption are the coins, not the exchange. That legal choice is already being flattened online into a Binance scandal. The accounts sat on Binance. The companies are the alleged operators. The distinction will matter if this stays a forfeiture and never becomes a new criminal case against the platform.

U.S. attorney seeks forfeiture of $61 million in cryptocurrency from the Iranian military’s black-market oil sales: “Today’s action demonstrates our determination to deprive the Government of Iran and its terrorist proxies of the illegal money they rely on to threaten the lives…

— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) September 14, 2026

A $1.5 Billion Unhosted Wallet Web

Buckley said Iran still leans on black-market crude to pay for its military, for proxy violence, and for nuclear and missile work. The $61 million in the complaint is the piece prosecutors say they can now take. Behind it they describe a much larger on-chain pattern.

They have labelled a set of linked unhosted addresses “Entity A.” Those wallets, the statement says, received and sent more than $1.5 billion from illicit Iranian oil sales. Unhosted means the keys sit with the user, not with an exchange, so a freeze depends on the issuer or on a later court order rather than a simple account shutdown.

From Entity A, prosecutors say, value moved to money-service businesses tied to the IRGC, to other crypto addresses linked to the Guards, and to an Iranian crypto exchange. Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, they allege, handled the bulk of the large transfers that fed that web. The $61 million is the parcel now in court. The rest of Entity A is identified, not captured in this caption.

How the Oil Cash Reached Binance Accounts

The alleged circuit is a conversion desk sitting between Chinese crude buyers and Iranian end users. Oil goes out under sanctions. Fiat comes back in. The two firms, prosecutors say, used Binance trading accounts to turn that cash into crypto and send it on.

THE ALLEGED OIL-TO-CRYPTO PATH

• The cover story: Blessed Trust posed as a custodian and wealth manager; Hexa Whale posed as a commodities broker, both with Chinese petroleum clients.
• The conversion: Oil proceeds were changed from fiat into crypto on Binance accounts, with some traffic touching U.S. issuers and U.S. banks.
• The hop: Value moved into the Entity A cluster of unhosted wallets that prosecutors put at more than $1.5 billion.
• The landing: Funds were sent to IRGC-linked money transmitters, related addresses, and an Iranian exchange.

That path is why Binance is in every headline even though it is not in the caption. A trading account is where the conversion became visible to U.S. investigators. It is also where the exchange’s 2023 cleanup was supposed to bite.

Binance Called Those Allegations False in March

In 2023 Binance pleaded guilty to failing as a money transmitter, to Bank Secrecy Act breaches, and to causing U.S. sanctions violations, and it agreed to pay $4.3 billion. Founder Changpeng Zhao stepped aside. Richard Teng took the top job as a compliance signal. The new complaint does not reopen that plea and does not charge the company.

A Binance spokesperson said the firm has zero tolerance for sanctions breaches or illicit activity and “did not permit any transactions with sanctioned individuals.” The same statement said Binance will keep working with law enforcement and will freeze or offboard users and file reports when it sees sanctions or illicit-finance risk.

Binance has zero tolerance for sanctions violations or illicit activity, and Binance did not permit any transactions with sanctioned individuals. We will continue to cooperate with law enforcement on this matter, and where sanctions or illicit-finance risk is identified, we will always investigate, restrict or freeze accounts where appropriate, offboard users, and report to relevant authorities.

Binance spokesperson, statement on the September 14 complaint

That line sits beside Teng’s March 6 stand. After Blumenthal opened an inquiry, Teng said Binance had voluntarily answered the senator and that the inquiry raised “false and defamatory” claims drawn from earlier reporting. The exchange also pointed to a formal response to the congressional inquiry that played down direct traffic with Iranian platforms.

In that response Binance put direct dealing with four major Iranian exchanges in the prior year at $110,000. Blumenthal treated that figure as a dodge. His letter said later reporting showed Blessed Trust sending hundreds of millions of dollars in Tether to a VIP account registered to an elderly resident of China, who then passed the funds to an Iran-linked intermediary wallet. Hexa Whale, the same letter said, moved nearly half a billion dollars toward those same intermediary accounts, with two Iranian Binance users paying the network fees, one of them previously named in a U.N. Security Council smuggling report.

Months of Delay After the First Warnings

Blumenthal, ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, first wrote on February 24, 2026, asking for records on Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust after reporting on Iran-linked transfers and on alleged pushback against compliance staff. Binance, he later said, denied knowledge of laundering and of retaliation and did not hand over the files he wanted.

His April letter to Binance co-CEO Richard Teng is the public record of the lag. It says Binance took two months to answer law-enforcement requests on Hexa Whale terrorist-finance flags, then another two months to remove a shell entity in that flow, and at least five months to drop Blessed Trust as a vendor after being warned. He asked whether any Binance accounts had sent or received funds with the Iran-linked Entity A wallets, the same label prosecutors now use for the $1.5 billion web.

THE PATH TO THE SEPTEMBER 14 FILING

1. 2023: Binance pleads guilty to sanctions and anti-money-laundering counts and agrees to pay $4.3 billion; Zhao leaves the chief-executive job.
2. February 24, 2026: Blumenthal opens a preliminary inquiry and asks Teng for records on Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust.
3. March 6, 2026: Teng calls the claims false and defamatory; Binance files its written reply and cites $110,000 of direct Iranian-exchange traffic.
4. April 1, 2026: Blumenthal sends a second letter, cites the delay periods, and sets an April 14 document deadline.
5. August 24, 2026: Treasury launches Operation Economic Outcast and names digital assets a sanctionable sector of Iran’s economy.
6. September 14, 2026: SDNY files the $61 million forfeiture complaint against crypto tied to the two firms’ Binance accounts.

The letter also asked whether Binance had labelled some of the relevant accounts with an internal “Don’t block” tag, a claim drawn from the reporting he was using. Binance has said it offboarded the two firms after reviews prompted by law-enforcement inquiries. The complaint still traces the $61 million through those accounts. Offboarding after the transfers does not pull the coins out of an in-rem case.

Where Crypto Fits in Operation Economic Outcast

The forfeiture lands inside a wider Treasury campaign, not as a one-off exchange story. On August 24, 21 days before the filing, Secretary Scott Bessent opened Operation Economic Outcast against Iran, a drive he framed as cutting every remaining financial lifeline to the regime and the IRGC. OFAC issued five sectoral determinations under Executive Order 13902 that day, so any foreign person operating in those Iranian sectors can be designated, wherever they sit.

THE FIVE SECTORS NAMED ON AUGUST 24

• Digital assets: Treasury said the regime now uses crypto as a preferred sanctions-evasion tool for IRGC and insider flows.
• Technology: A sectoral hook for procurement and cyber support that used to need a name-by-name case.
• Gold: A classic sanctions-exit metal now listed beside tokens and planes.
• Aviation: Follow-on designations on September 8 hit 36 targets, including the remaining active Iranian airlines.
• Shipping: The shadow-fleet channel that still moves crude when banks will not.

Bessent said any party that keeps laundering for Iran would be cut out of the dollar system. OFAC also designated more than 60 people, firms, and ships on the launch day. On September 14, the same date as the Manhattan complaint, OFAC designated Russia’s VTB Bank for building correspondent ties with sanctioned Iranian banks. The crypto filing and the bank hit are two tools on one wartime desk, while fighting between the United States and Iran that began in February still squeezes the Strait of Hormuz and the oil trade that this case says moved on-chain instead.

A Small Forfeiture Against a Large Oil-Crypto Web

The numbers in public view do not tell one story. They tell several, and they should not be mashed together. The $61 million is the pile in front of a Manhattan judge. The $1.5 billion is the Entity A pattern prosecutors say they have mapped. The Hexa Whale “nearly half a billion” and the Blessed Trust “hundreds of millions” are the Senate’s reading of earlier transfers, not the forfeiture demand. The $110,000 is Binance’s own 2025 Iranian-exchange figure. The $4.3 billion is the old plea.

THE MONEY LAYERS IN PUBLIC VIEW

A civil forfeiture can take coins without convicting a person. It cannot, in this caption, reach the rest of Entity A, rewrite the 2023 plea, or answer Blumenthal’s still-open document demands. Blessed Trust did not immediately respond to questions after the filing, and Hexa Whale could not be reached. Binance says it will keep cooperating. The $61 million is the piece now sitting in a New York case file. The larger oil-crypto web the complaint describes is still outside it.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of a civil forfeiture complaint, congressional letters, and Treasury actions. It is for information only and is not legal, investment, or sanctions-compliance advice, and it is not a finding that any named firm or person has been convicted. Readers who hold crypto, run an exchange, or may be exposed to Iran-related trade should speak with a qualified sanctions lawyer or licensed financial adviser before acting. Figures, case status, and designations reflect the public statements and documents cited as of September 14, 2026, and can change as the court case and the Treasury campaign move.