OFAC Sanctions Iranians Over $100M Illicit Oil Sales Using Crypto
Iranian entities just schooled Wall Street on how to move $100M in oil without a single banker taking a cut.
Digital Sanctions Evasion
The Treasury's OFAC unit dropped the hammer on a sophisticated crypto network that turned black market crude into clean digital profits. No intermediaries, no paperwork, just pure financial arbitrage against geopolitical constraints.
Crypto's Double-Edged Sword
While regulators fume about illicit flows, the tech itself remains neutral—faster than SWIFT, cheaper than traditional correspondent banking. The same features that attract innovators also tempt evaders. Talk about unintended consequences.
Finance's Open Secret
Let's be real: if JPMorgan moved oil like this, shareholders would demand a bonus round. But when sanctioned states do it? Suddenly it's a 'threat to financial stability.' The hypocrisy would be amusing if it weren't so predictable.
Sanctions targeting crypto
Angela Ang, APAC head of policy and strategic partnerships at TRM Labs, told Decrypt that the explicit targeting of blockchain activity reflects a larger strategic shift. “Iran’s procurement networks no longer rely solely on front companies and bank transfers,” she said, noting that crypto has become “a parallel channel for moving value quickly and discreetly across borders, particularly when banks flag or reject suspicious wires.” Sanctioning wallet addresses as well as shipping assets and corporate fronts, sends a message that “digital rails are a growing focus for sanctions,” she added.
Ang added that the action underscores just how deeply digital assets have become embedded in Iran’s sanctions-evasion playbook. ”By designating wallet addresses alongside vessels, individuals, and front companies, OFAC is making clear that cryptocurrency is no longer a peripheral tool but a Core settlement rail for procurement and finance networks,” she said.
She noted that the Treasury had described “familiar patterns” in Iran’s use of crypto payment rails, including “fiat converted into stablecoins like USDT or TRX, value moved through layers of intermediary wallets to fragment the trail, and funds ultimately off-ramped through exchanges with weak compliance oversight.”
The IRGC-QF was first designated by the U.S. in 2007 for supporting terrorist groups, while its parent organization, the IRGC, was blacklisted in 2017. MODAFL, which oversees weapons development, was sanctioned in 2019.
