Iranian entities moved more than $3.84 billion since 2019 through CoinEx, a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange founded by Chinese engineer Haipo Yang. Wallets hosted by CoinEx received hacked cryptocurrency obtained by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and transacted directly with accounts later attributed to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). To discover the activity, analytical firm TRM Labs traced stablecoins from wallets attributed to the CBI, including funds linked to $1.5 billion stolen by North Korean hackers. The funds progressed through multiple blockchains and cryptocurrencies to wallets hosted by Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, before being transferred to CoinEx accounts and rendered untraceable through a series of additional steps.CoinEx became Nobitex’s largest foreign counterparty by 2024, after the United States penalized Binance for allowing Iranian customers to use its platform. More than $763 million moved between CoinEx and Nobitex in 2025. Between 2022 and 2025, CoinEx-hosted wallets processed transactions for Alireza Derakhshan, an Iranian individual allegedly involved in an oil sales network sanctioned by the United States in 2025. CoinEx wallets also sent and received funds from wallets attributed to Zedcex, a London-registered cryptocurrency exchange connected to IRGC-linked sanctions evader Babak Zanjani. CoinEx denied facilitating direct transactions on behalf of Iranian or sanctioned entities.
News Briefs
June 24, 2026
-- Wall Street Journal
June 23, 2026
A U.S. pilot recalled seeing multiple Iranian drones hover together in formation before he was shot down in Iranian airspace in April, according to four sources familiar with his intelligence debriefing. The pilot reported a formation resembling a jellyfish, with large drones above and smaller drones underneath. The pilot was concussed during the crash, but if his recollection is correct it could indicate that Iran has developed a meshed networking capability. Meshed networking allows multiple drones to be controlled at once by one operator. Russia and China are believed to have the capability, and two CNN sources said that there have been reports indicating that Russia and China have assisted Iran in developing its drone technology.
-- CNN
June 19, 2026
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in an interview with French media that France would not approve the lifting of U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran unless Paris is satisfied by the terms of a final agreement reached between Iran and the United States. He stated that there would not be stability in the Middle East unless U.S.-Iran talks addressed Iran's ballistic missile program and support for proxy militants in addition to the Iranian nuclear program.
-- Reuters
June 13, 2026
Iran has fortified the sites containing its highly enriched uranium (HEU) stockpile by collapsing tunnels and mining entrances, according to sources familiar with U.S. intelligence. The U.S. military contemplated an operation to seize the HEU in mid-May, but concluded that the risk was too high. Iran's fortification efforts subsequently continued and increased the time and risk that would be required to retrieve the uranium, even if the retrieval were to be carried out under the terms of a negotiated settlement or by Iran itself. U.S. President Donald Trump said in early June that removal of the HEU would take at least two weeks to complete. A former head of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration voiced concern that Iran could claim some of the uranium is irretrievable, thereby obfuscating compliance with any potential agreement to remove it.
-- CNN
June 8, 2026
The Israeli military said that it struck the Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex in Mahshahr, Iran, which it claimed was used to produce raw materials for Iran's ballistic missile program. One of the sites damaged in the strike was the Karun petrochemical plant, which produces isocyanates used for making plastic products. Israel previously struck the Mahshahr complex in early April.
-- New York Times
June 5, 2026
Iranian national Reza Dindar, also known as Renda Dindar, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle to two counts of export to an embargoed country and two counts of smuggling goods from the United States in connection with a scheme to procure U.S.-origin parts for military sonar systems and ship them to Iran through China. Between 2010 and 2014, Dindar managed New Port Sourcing Solutions in Xi’an, China, which procured items in the United States for companies in Iran and falsely claimed that the goods were destined for China, according to the plea agreement. In 2011 and 2012, Dindar and his co-conspirators purchased parts for three military sonar systems from a business in the Western District of Washington and falsely claimed the systems would be used by a company in China, when they in fact planned to ship them to Iran. Dindar was indicted in August 2014, arrested in Panama in July 2025 at the request of the United States, and extradited to the United States in April 2026.
-- U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington
June 3, 2026
Dual U.S.-Iranian national Jamshid Ghomi, owner and CEO of Tehran-based Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. Ltd. (FPR), was arrested for supplying U.S.-origin computer networking, security, and encryption equipment to Iranian customers, including Iran’s nuclear and military establishments. From 2011 to 2015, Ghomi allegedly used eBay and PayPal accounts to make more than 400 purchases of computer-networking equipment and directed the goods to intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). From 2014 to 2018, he allegedly arranged the smuggling of more than 250 metric tons of networking equipment into Iran through freight forwarders and intermediaries in Dubai. In 2023, he allegedly purchased U.S.-origin networking equipment from U.S. suppliers and routed the equipment through a UAE front company to FPR in Iran. FPR allegedly supplied U.S.-origin computer networking equipment from 2017 to 2023 to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), and supplied U.S.-origin networking, security, and encryption equipment from 2014 to 2022 to Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and affiliated entities, including Iran Computer Industries.According to the criminal complaint against him, Ghomi directed UAE-based co-conspirators to keep his name off shipping paperwork, omit invoices from shipments bound for Iran, and hide U.S.-origin computer equipment inside larger shipments. He also allegedly laundered proceeds from FPR’s Iranian sales into the United States through trading companies and exchange houses in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Turkey, and the UAE. From 2011 to 2024, he allegedly moved more than $15 million from Iran into U.S. bank accounts and a construction escrow account and falsely reported the funds to the Internal Revenue Service as a foreign inheritance.
-- U.S. Department of Justice
May 31, 2026
China-based Haokun Energy worked with Turkey-based company Golden Globe Demir Celik (GDCP) and other firms in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to help Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) acquire sodium chlorate and sodium perchlorate used in ballistic missile fuel production, according to hacked documents. Haokun Energy has been an intermediary IRGC oil sales to Chinese refineries and was sanctioned by the United States in 2022 for financing the IRGC’s Quds Force. GDCP is registered in Turkey, but emails from the company were signed by Iranian national Mohammadreza Sadr, who appeared to be Ahmad Mohammadzadeh, a former deputy coordinator of the IRGC Navy and former governor of Bushehr involved in the Pourjafari Headquarters, an IRGC oil sales network. Haokun also established a company called Mosta under the control of GDCP to obtain bank guarantees.According to the documents, Haokun planned to ship 2,000 tons of sodium chlorate and 10,000 tons of sodium perchlorate to Iran through GDCP in a shipment valued at $43 million, with the volume sufficient to produce solid fuel for roughly 2,500 ballistic missiles. Another document showed GDCP preparing to sell two million barrels of oil from Kharg Island to Fortune Company in the United Arab Emirates. Another recorded a transfer of roughly $3 million in cryptocurrency to GDCP, with a separate document indicating that the funds were deposited into an account at the Borj-e Aseman branch of Tourism Bank in Tehran. Haokun Energy also said it coordinated confidential channels with Chinese customs authorities.
-- Iran International
May 24, 2026
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force imported approximately 1.8 tons of satellite antenna equipment in late 2025 via the United Arab Emirates-based company Telesun. The goods, a motorized satellite antenna and related accessories, arrived in a single shipment. A Chinese container ship made the first leg of the delivery from Shanghai to Dubai in August. The container was then transferred to an Iranian vessel, which delivered the shipment to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas while falsifying its transponder signal to show the vessel as located in the Gulf of Oman. The shipment's consignee was Ertebatat Faragostar Kish (EFK), an Iranian telecommunications company working for Saman Industrial Group, which was sanctioned by the United States in 2023 for serving as a front company for the IRGC Aerospace Force's Self Sufficiency Jihad Organization. The delivery's Iranian shipping agent was Blue Calm Marine Services, which was also sanctioned by the United States in 2023 for facilitating shipments of missile-related goods to Iran's defense ministry.
-- Financial Times
May 21, 2026
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued a directive prohibiting Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium from being removed from the country, according to two senior Iranian sources. The United States has insisted publicly that Iran will not be allowed to retain its highly enriched uranium (HEU), including more than 440 kilograms enriched to 60% purity. One of the Iranian sources said that it could be possible to dilute the HEU under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
-- Reuters