Tether, Binance and a $1.5 billion Iran oil network converge in new US forfeiture case

US prosecutors are seeking to seize $61 million in Tether’s USDT tied to alleged black-market Iranian oil sales.On Sept. 14, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed a civil forfeiture complaint targeting approximately 61.2 million USDT across 10 Tron addresses. Prosecutors allege the funds came from Iranian crude and petroleum sales intended to benefit the country’s government and military, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).The tokens were already immobilized. Tether froze seven of the targeted addresses in June 2025 and another three in July. A seizure warrant issued this week now authorizes federal agents to move the value into government custody.Executing that warrant would depend on Tether’s control over USDT. The stablecoin issuer would burn the frozen tokens and issue replacements of the same value for transfer to an FBI-controlled hardware wallet, according to the complaint.The mechanism gives US authorities a route from identifying sanctioned funds on-chain to taking custody without obtaining the private keys controlling the original wallets. It also extends a growing enforcement relationship between US agencies and the issu...