Two Chinese companies used cryptocurrency accounts to launder proceeds from illegal Iranian oil sales, according to a civil forfeiture complaint filed Sept. 14 by U.S. prosecutors seeking roughly $61 million in cryptocurrency.
The complaint, filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, alleged that Iran “used a network of cryptocurrency actors in China and elsewhere to launder more than $1.5 billion in illicit oil money,” according to Deputy U.S. Attorney Sean S. Buckley.
These funds were intended to finance the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, Buckley added. …