The party in Dubai is over: America has shut down a secret crypto-faucet for Iran
A Reuters investigation has exposed a $4 billion sanctions-evasion network that served the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Central Bank in Tehran. The US Treasury Department has intervened and shut down the operation.
The US Treasury Department imposed harsh sanctions over the weekend against the unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange Shelbit, which operates out of Dubai, and against its Iranian founder, Siavash Keyvanpour. According to Washington's announcement, the exchange served as a central artery for money laundering and transferred millions of dollars for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Central Bank of Iran, and an illegal online gambling network.
The move follows an investigation by Reuters, which revealed that the exchange operated a sophisticated network for evading sanctions on a scale of approximately $4 billion. At the same time, the United States also imposed sanctions on the Iranian cryptocurrency exchange Aban Tether, which is accused of processing transactions for sanctioned entities in the country.
"The Treasury Department will pursue and dismantle the illicit financial networks that keep the Iranian regime afloat," declared US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The investigation revealed that a large portion of the funds came from Bitcoin mining farms in Iran and from a gambling network operated by Iranian social media influencers.
Although Shelbit denied the allegations and claimed that it had ceased its operations, the regulator in Dubai (VARA) had previously determined that it had seriously violated laws against money laundering and terrorist financing — a move that constitutes another heavy blow to Tehran's financial apparatus.
