US targets UAE-based crypto exchange over alleged Iran sanctions evasion scheme

The US Treasury sanctioned Dubai-based crypto exchange Shelbit and its founder Siavash Kayvanpour for allegedly processing millions in crypto for Iran's IRGC and other state-linked groups. The action follows a Reuters investigation identifying Shelbit as the hub of a $4 billion sanctions evasion scheme. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent vowed to dismantle illicit financial networks keeping the Iranian regime afloat.

The United States on Friday sanctioned an unlicensed multi-state cryptocurrency exchange, Shelbit, alleging it processed millions of dollars of crypto for Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other groups linked to the Iranian state. The designation follows a Reuters investigation published on July 31 that identified the Dubai-based exchange as the hub of a $4 billion Iranian sanctions evasion scheme. The investigation found that Shelbit moved crypto on behalf of Iran's central bank, one of the world's largest illegal online gambling networks, and to addresses linked by the Israeli government to the IRGC. The US Treasury also sanctioned the expatriate Iranian who founded Shelbit and a network of other companies, Siavash Kayvanpour, for providing material support to the IRGC and Nobitex, Iran's biggest cryptocurrency exchange. The US sanctioned Nobitex on June 2 for enabling the Iranian government to circumvent Western sanctions, also after a Reuters investigation. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement, "Treasury will hunt down and dismantle the illicit financial networks that keep the regime afloat." Shelbit's website had been down for months, but the exchange continued to process money, even during the US and Israeli war against Iran. The site reactivated the day after the Reuters investigation was published. Shelbit categorically rejected any suggestion that it knowingly participated in money laundering, terrorist financing, illegal gambling activity, sanctions evasion, or activity on behalf of any sanctioned, military, or governmental organization, and said it had ceased operations in January 2026. Tens of millions of dollars of the crypto that passed through Shelbit came from a suspected Iranian bitcoin mining operation, and many millions more was linked to the illegal gambling network operated by two high-profile Iranian social media influencers. The OFAC designation comes soon after Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority issued a notice saying Shelbit was in violation of money-laundering and terrorism financing laws.