The U.S. Justice Department said several companies used crypto exchange Binance to relay payments for black-market Iranian oil from Chinese buyers, as part of a scheme to finance Iran's military in violation of sanctions.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan disclosed Binance's role late Monday in a forfeiture complaint to seize $61 million of cryptocurrency related to Iran oil proceeds. Prosecutors said in total around $1.5 billion was sent to Iran through a series of interrelated digital wallets.

A Binance spokesperson said the civil-forfeiture case isn't against Binance and doesn't allege any wrongdoing by the exchange.

The Wall Street Journal reported in February that investigators inside Binance found two Hong Kong-based companies had moved substantial sums of money through the exchange during 2024 and 2025 to a network that was funding Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The network enabled Chinese companies to quietly pay for sanctioned Iranian oil.

Binance has said that, after identifying the suspicious activity, it took appropriate compliance measures against both trading clients, called Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust, and removed them from the exchange in August 2025 and this January, respectively. Blessed Trust was a Binance business partner that provided payment services, the Journal reported.

In the complaint, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said although Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale portrayed themselves as ordinary crypto-services and trading companies, they worked together to move money for Chinese companies in the petroleum sector. Some of the money moved through the U.S. financial system, it added.

The U.S. attorney's office said Blessed Trust and Hexa were among several entities that have used accounts "at Binance to conduct cryptocurrency transactions representing the proceeds of black-market sales of Iranian oil to buyers in China."

Prosecutors said the money sent to Iran went through a network of cryptocurrency accounts the Justice Department referred to as "Entity A." The transactions were designed to obfuscate the funds' source and ownership, they added.

Binance investigators also used the term "Entity A" in their internal investigation into the network, the Journal reported. Binance has said transactions between "Entity A" and its clients passed through intermediaries before reaching the network.

The forfeiture request is for funds that were frozen in several digital wallets. It isn't clear where the remainder of the proceeds are.

"Binance has zero tolerance for sanctions violations or illicit activity, and Binance did not permit any transactions with sanctioned individuals," the Binance spokesperson said. "We will continue to cooperate with law enforcement on this matter."

Hexa Whale, which went dormant last year, and Blessed Trust didn't reply to requests for comment. Blessed Trust previously said it operated in accordance with laws and regulatory requirements, and carried out sanctions-screening procedures.

Binance pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating U.S. anti-money-laundering and sanctions laws, and agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine and operate under U.S. oversight. Its founder, Changpeng Zhao, served a four-month prison sentence on a related charge. President Trump pardoned Zhao last year.

The Journal previously reported that the Justice Department was investigating Iran's use of Binance to evade U.S. sanctions. The Journal also reported in May that a separate network run by an Iranian financier called Babak Zanjani made $850 million in transactions over two years on Binance.

Asked about Zanjani's use of Binance, the company previously said it didn't allow any transactions with individuals that were sanctioned and it took all appropriate actions once they were. A spokesperson for Zanjani said he hasn't "relied upon any cryptocurrency exchange for the purpose of money laundering or sanction evasion."

Several of the Binance investigators who raised concerns about Blessed Trust were forced out of the exchange, the Journal reported. Binance has said the investigators weren't fired for raising compliance concerns but left "based on individual circumstances."

Binance filed a defamation lawsuit against the Journal over its previous reporting about Iran's use of the exchange. A Journal spokesperson said, "We stand by our reporting."