On 7 August 2026, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two digital asset exchanges it says serve Iran's illicit finance, the Iran-based Aban Tether and Shelbit Exchange, a network run through front companies across Georgia, the UAE and Poland, along with a UAE-based network organiser Treasury says helped Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) move and launder funds through cryptocurrency. According to Treasury’s announcement, the move targets the financial machinery Tehran depends on to shift illicit money at scale and maintain a quiet foothold in the global banking system.
Two exchanges at the centre of the action
OFAC designated Shelbit Exchange, operated through SHPS Shelbit in Georgia and Shelbit General Trading LLC in the UAE, and the Iran-based Aban Tether. Treasury says Aban Tether has already handled millions of dollars in flows tied to Iranian exchanges under US sanctions, including Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex. By the department's account, IRGC-linked wallets pushed over US$1 million in crypto into Shelbit Exchange, while more than US$2 million flowed the other way, from Shelbit addresses back to wallets the IRGC controls.
The front-company network OFAC describes
The organiser Treasury places at the hub of the network is Siavash Kayvanpour. Born in Iran and holding citizenship in Dominica and Afghanistan, he ran the operation from the UAE, Treasury says, leaning on companies across several countries to keep the illicit crypto activity going. The designated entities span jurisdictions: SHPS Shelbit in Georgia, Shelbit General Trading LLC in the UAE, Shelbit Technologies in Poland, and two Dubai free-zone companies, Crypto Home DMCC and NFT Home DMCC. Treasury alleges that wallets Kayvanpour controlled moved more than US$2 million to Nobitex, an Iranian exchange already under sanctions, and that a connected gambling operation funnelled tens of millions of dollars of its proceeds through Shelbit to launder them.
Regulatory action alone did not stop it
For compliance teams, the case is notable for what happened before the US action. By Treasury's account, Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) had already moved against Shelbit General Trading twice, in January 2025 and again in July 2026, without putting it out of business, and had taken separate action against Crypto Home back in January 2025. The sequence highlights a familiar challenge: licensing enforcement against one entity does not automatically dismantle a network operating through multiple corporate shells across borders.
What it means for screening
The designations were made under Executive Orders 13224 and 13902, adding the exchanges, Kayvanpour and the front companies to OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. The machine-readable entries and any associated cryptocurrency wallet addresses are published through OFAC's Recent Actions listing for 7 August 2026. Firms with exposure to UAE free-zone trading companies, virtual-asset service providers and correspondent flows should refresh sanctions screening against the new entries, review counterparties linked to the named DMCC entities, and treat wallet-address screening as part of ongoing transaction monitoring rather than a one-off check.
Announcing the action, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said the regime's reliance on digital assets and shadow banking is "further evidence that Economic Fury is working," adding that "whether in dollars, rials, or crypto, Treasury will hunt down and dismantle the illicit financial networks that keep the regime afloat." The release also flagged a standing reward of up to US$15 million, offered through the US State Department's Rewards for Justice programme, for information that helps disrupt the IRGC's financial mechanisms.
