An elaborate financial web involving thousands of illegal gambling sites and a small cryptocurrency exchange in Dubai has reportedly moved at least four billion dollars to help Iran bypass international sanctions. At the heart of the operation is Shelbit, an unlicensed exchange run by Siavash Kayvanpour out of an office located above a budget hotel in Dubai. According to blockchain analysis conducted by several investigative firms and researchers, Shelbit acted as a critical conduit between the global financial system and entities like Iran’s central bank and wallets linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The scale of the movement is staggering, with records showing that hundreds of millions of dollars flowed from these sources toward major platforms like Binance since May 2024 alone. This clandestine pipeline was fueled in part by a massive network of over 2,000 Farsi language gambling websites. These platforms were heavily promoted on social media by influencers who flaunted lifestyles of extreme luxury, featuring private jets and yachts to lure users into a system that served as more than just a gaming hub. While gambling is strictly forbidden under Iranian law, experts suggest the government effectively weaponized this prohibition by controlling the resulting black market.
Despite previous convictions in an Iranian court regarding illegal gambling operations, some involved individuals have denied any knowledge of state sponsorship or money laundering schemes. However, officials note that the IRGC has long sought ways to shift funds abroad using sectors they can secretly dominate. The complexity of these transactions makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly who within the Iranian state managed the flow or precisely where every dollar ended up once it left the exchange.
Pressure is now mounting on those facilitating these trades outside of Iran. Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority has launched an investigation into Shelbit after finding it lacked a proper license and violated rules concerning terrorism financing and money laundering. As regulators tighten their grip on unauthorized exchanges, this case highlights the ongoing struggle for Western powers to close loopholes created by digital assets and offshore hubs designed specifically to evade geopolitical restrictions.