Investigators have tied a Dubai-based crypto exchange called Shelbit to what they describe as a major Iranian sanctions-evasion network that moved about $4 billion in digital assets, according to Reuters. The exchange is also alleged to have served as a conduit for a large illegal gambling operation based in Dubai.
U.S. and independent researchers said the network gave Iran’s central bank and other sanctioned Iranian entities access to global crypto markets. Reuters reported that the evidence points to close links with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, although it said it could not confirm that the IRGC directly controlled either Shelbit or the gambling network.
Shelbit at the center of the operation
Shelbit is described in the report as the main hub through which the gambling network, the Central Bank of Iran and other sanctioned Iranian actors were able to move funds into the wider crypto ecosystem. The exchange is unlicensed and is run by Iranian expatriate Siavash Kayvanpour, according to Reuters.
The Central Bank of Iran has been under U.S. counterterrorism sanctions since 2019 over support for the IRGC, its Quds Force and Hezbollah. Investigators cited by Reuters said Shelbit’s role went beyond ordinary exchange activity and placed it at the core of an alleged money-moving system used to reach international crypto markets.
Flows through major exchanges
Reuters said Shelbit moved hundreds of millions of dollars through some of the best-known crypto platforms, including Binance. The activity highlights how funds tied to opaque or sanctioned networks can still touch large venues even when the underlying entity is not openly operating on those platforms.
Binance told Reuters that Shelbit itself had never held an account there and that transactions associated with Shelbit were not initially classified as high risk. The company said it later investigated users linked to Shelbit, froze relevant accounts and reported them to law enforcement.
Investigators point to Iranian state-linked ties
Several researchers quoted by Reuters described the network as unusually large. John Wojcik, a former Infoblox researcher now at TRM Labs who spent seven years investigating illegal gambling for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, called it the biggest Iranian illegal gambling network yet uncovered and one of the largest globally.
Independent blockchain investigator Rich Sanders said the operation appeared to be an IRGC operation. Reuters, however, said it was unable to establish direct IRGC control over Shelbit or the gambling enterprise. The distinction matters because the report presents the links as evidence-based allegations rather than a confirmed command structure.
Related entities and what comes next
Reuters reported that Shelbit interacted directly with Iran’s central bank, wallets the Israeli government has linked to the IRGC, and Nobitex, an Iranian exchange sanctioned by the U.S. earlier this year after a Reuters investigation reported ties to the Iranian government. Some of the crypto reaching Shelbit also allegedly came from an Iranian bitcoin mining operation identified by two investigative firms as a source of newly created coins.
The case is being framed as one of the largest Iranian sanctions-evasion networks identified since the U.S. disrupted a roughly $20 billion IRGC gold-for-oil operation in Turkey in 2016. Reuters also noted that U.S. authorities separately seized about $1 billion in crypto from Iran in May, underscoring that scrutiny of Iranian-linked crypto flows is already active and likely to continue.
Source: www.coindesk.com