Dubai-based crypto exchange tied to $4 billion Iran sanctioned-evasion network
A Dubai-based crypto exchange named Shelbit is allegedly serving as a hub for an Iranian sanctions-evasion network linked to illegal gambling and the IRGC. Reports suggest the network has moved hundreds of millions of dollars through major global crypto platforms.
Why it matters
This highlights the ongoing challenges of enforcing international financial sanctions in the decentralized and often opaque cryptocurrency market.
Considered one of the world’s largest, with more than 2,000 platforms, the illegal gambling network is a major customer of Shelbit, an unlicensed crypto exchange run by Iranian expatriate Siavash Kayvanpour.
Shelbit is the hub of the Iranian money-moving operation, through which the gambling network, Iran’s central bank and other sanctioned Iranian entities have access to global crypto markets, the report said. The Central Bank of Iran has been sanctioned under U.S. counterterrorism authorities since 2019 over its support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Quds Force, and Hezbollah.
Shelbit has moved hundreds of millions of dollars to some of the most prominent crypto companies, including Binance, the world’s largest exchange, according to the report.
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