OFAC sanctions crypto exchanges Shelbit and Aban Tether over IRGC funding network

What happened

OFAC, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, sanctioned two cryptocurrency exchanges, Shelbit and Aban Tether, on 7 August 2026. The designations target platforms OFAC says processed millions of dollars in transactions for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other sanctioned entities.

Shelbit’s operator, Siavash Kayvanpour, ran the exchange through a network of companies spanning Georgia, Poland, and the United Arab Emirates, according to OFAC. The unlicensed, lightly regulated platform moved digital assets through that corporate network and an online gambling operation to obscure the funds’ origin. The scheme benefited the IRGC and individuals connected to the Iranian regime, OFAC said.

Aban Tether faces a separate accusation from OFAC. The agency says the exchange processed transactions involving Nobitex, an Iranian exchange OFAC sanctioned previously. The designations follow a Reuters investigation that identified Shelbit as the hub of a $4 billion Iranian sanctions evasion scheme.

Why it matters

The layering pattern OFAC describes, moving digital assets through a multi-country corporate network and into an online gambling operation, suggests a deliberate effort to break the audit trail between IRGC linked funds and their destination. Gambling platforms move value quickly across borders with minimal identity checks in many jurisdictions. That makes them an attractive layering tool for sanctioned networks.

The timing suggests a pattern worth tracking. OFAC’s action landed after Reuters had already identified Shelbit as central to the $4 billion evasion scheme, which indicates that investigative reporting can precede formal enforcement rather than follow it. Practitioners should expect a lag between public disclosure of a network’s structure and its eventual designation.

The involvement of Georgia, Poland, and the United Arab Emirates as corporate hubs reflects how sanctioned networks favor jurisdictions with weaker virtual asset oversight. Firms with counterparties in those corridors carry elevated exposure until their own due diligence catches up.

Practitioner angle

• Screen customer and counterparty wallet addresses against OFAC’s updated sanctions list for Shelbit, Aban Tether, and their known affiliated entities, including Siavash Kayvanpour and any linked corporate names.
• Check historical transaction records for exposure to Nobitex, the previously sanctioned Iranian exchange now tied to Aban Tether, since indirect exposure through nested exchanges is easy to miss.
• Flag counterparties incorporated or operating in Georgia, Poland, or the United Arab Emirates that lack clear licensing as virtual asset service providers, and apply enhanced due diligence to those relationships.
• Add online gambling platforms with weak identity verification to transaction monitoring typologies as a potential layering channel for sanctioned crypto flows.
• File a suspicious activity report (SAR) if screening surfaces any historical exposure to the designated entities, and document the review even where no match is found.

The single most important step this week: rerun sanctions screening against the full list of newly designated wallet addresses and entities named in OFAC’s release, not just the two headline exchange names.