The seizure aims at a balance already stopped
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, in civil case 26 Civ. 8010, seek forfeiture of about 61.19 million USDT held in 10 Tron addresses. Tether froze those addresses in 2025. A 14 September seizure warrant authorises the tokens to be burned and replaced at equal value into an FBI wallet. The Justice Department said the allegations are unproven without a court judgment.[1]
The complaint alleges that Hong Kong companies Blessed Trust Limited and Hexa Whale Trading Limited used Binance accounts to move proceeds from sales of sanctioned Iranian crude oil and petroleum products. Prosecutors say linked addresses labelled Entity A received and distributed more than 1.5 billion dollars. The filing also alleges sales to buyers in China. Binance said the case was not filed against the exchange, that it did not permit transactions with sanctioned individuals, and that it offboarded Hexa Whale on 13 August 2025 and Blessed Trust in January 2026.[1]
What is held is a frozen balance
The forfeiture request points to wallets where proceeds were converted into a stablecoin and stopped in 2025. A freeze cuts reuse of that balance. The alleged 1.5 billion dollars through Entity A, in the same complaint, describes a wider payments network. Binance’s offboarding closes a leak at its own gate. The correspondent-account narrative and Tether freeze in the filing suggest the restriction bites at the bank and stablecoin layer. The frozen 61.19 million may also be a residual tail, with substitution already on other payment channels.[1]
The observable signal is whether a federal court enters a forfeiture judgment over this USDT and whether Tether actually moves replacement tokens into the FBI wallet. If no judgment is entered by the end of 2026, or the balance appears scattered across other addresses, the seizure request will have held a stopped sum more than circulating payment.[1]