OFAC sanctioned Shelbit, founder Siavash Kayvanpour, affiliated entities in the UAE, Poland and Georgia, and Iran-based Aban Tether after TRM Labs traced about $6.3 billion in blockchain flows tied to IRGC-linked wallets and other sanctioned networks. The Dubai-registered venue had been operating since May 2024, according to the reports.
TRM says Shelbit looked like an exchange in name only: wallets held almost no balances, and money moving in left almost immediately in matching amounts, which is what a settlement conduit looks like. Most of the volume ran on TRON in dollar-pegged stablecoins, and the network also touched Hamas-linked and Russian sanctioned ecosystems, including A7 and other services.
For sanctions, AML, and blockchain-monitoring teams, the lesson is that a counterparty can present as a normal crypto venue while acting as passthrough infrastructure for several sanctioned economies at once. If a platform’s flows clear as fast as they arrive, the compliance problem is the conduit itself, not just the labels on the storefront.