US prosecutors seek to seize $61 million in USDT linked to Iranian oil network

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has filed a civil forfeiture complaint to seize approximately 61.2 million USDT across 10 Tron addresses. Prosecutors allege these funds are tied to illicit Iranian crude and petroleum sales benefiting the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Tether has already frozen the targeted addresses and plans to burn the tokens to issue replacements for transfer to an FBI-controlled wallet. This action highlights the increasing cooperation between Tether and US law enforcement in using stablecoin issuer controls as a mechanism for asset recovery.