Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Operation Economic Outcast in August, a financial “onslaught” designed to cripple the Islamic Republic of Iran financially and punish any of its enablers.

Since then, the administration has been targeting banks, shadow fleets, money launderers, and anyone or anything attempting to aid and abet the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as it continues to disrupt crucial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and attack its neighbors.

On Monday, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that they’re going after $61 million in cryptocurrency from the Iranian military’s black-market oil sales that was allegedly laundered with the help of Chinese entities.

The Department of Justice announced the move on their website:

Deputy United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Sean S. Buckley, and Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI, James C. Barnacle, Jr., announced the filing of a civil forfeiture Complaint against approximately $61 million in cryptocurrency as the proceeds of black-market sales of sanctioned Iranian crude oil and petroleum products, intended to finance the Government of Iran and Iranian military components, including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”), a designated terrorist organization.

The complaint alleges that Iran used a network of crypto schemes in China and elsewhere to launder more than $1.5 billion in oil proceeds intended to benefit the Iranian military. Although one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance, is named in the complaint as the vehicle for many of the transactions, they have not been accused of wrongdoing.

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The complaint alleges that two Chinese companies, Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, used trading accounts at the UAE-based cryptocurrency exchange Binance to launder the proceeds of black-market sales of Iranian oil, funneling the illicit funds to Iran, its agents, and proxies, where the funds were used to finance terrorist and other activities of the Iranian government.

A Binance spokesperson told CNBC that the company has "zero tolerance for sanctions violations or illicit activity," and it denied that it had permitted transactions with sanctioned individuals. It's cooperating with law enforcement, the spokesperson said.

The firm’s co-CEO Richard Teng took to social media Tuesday to defend his company and say that they were unaware of the illicit activity:


As Bloomberg's article notes, this case was not filed against @binance and does not allege any wrongdoing by Binance.

Let me be clear: We have zero tolerance for sanctions violations or illicit activity, and we did not permit any transactions with sanctioned individuals.

We will continue to cooperate with law enforcement on this matter, as we have done since it was first raised months ago.

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.

We will never compromise on security or compliance. If you seek to use our industry to evade the law, we will find you, freeze you out, and hand you over to the authorities.


However, it must be noted that Binance settled with Treasury in 2023 for a whopping $3.4 billion over money-laundering allegations that included trades tied to Iran and terrorist groups. 

As the U.S. continues to choke the Iranian regime financially, the question becomes: how long can they last?