The U.S. Department of Justice has accused several companies of using the cryptocurrency exchange Binance to funnel money to Iran, allegedly to support its military. According to a recent forfeiture complaint, federal prosecutors are seeking to seize $61 million in cryptocurrency linked to this scheme. They claim that approximately $1.5 billion was sent to Iran through a network of interconnected digital wallets. This operation involved two Hong Kong-based companies, Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust, which reportedly acted as intermediaries in the sale of black-market Iranian oil to Chinese buyers. Binance confirmed its role in the matter after internal investigators discovered that these entities, along with others, had used the exchange to move funds to a network supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that the companies used Binance to conduct cryptocurrency transactions involving the proceeds of illegal oil sales to buyers in China. The complaint further alleges that some of the money passed through the U.S. financial system before reaching Iran, in an effort to obscure its origin. Binance has since removed both Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust from its platform. Notably, Blessed Trust was actually a business partner of Binance, providing payment services. The exchange also reportedly fired some of the investigators who uncovered the suspicious transactions, citing "individual circumstances" as the reason. This move has raised questions, given the sensitive nature of the findings. This is the latest in a series of controversies involving Binance. In 2023, the exchange pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, agreeing to pay billions in fines. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao spent four months in prison on related charges but was later pardoned by former President Donald Trump. Recently, Binance has also faced accusations of allowing an Iranian financier, Babak Zanjani, to transfer over $850 million over two years to support Iran’s military efforts, though Zanjani denies these claims. Additionally, the exchange faced backlash after a system outage led to significant financial losses for investors, prompting a class-action lawsuit.