An unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange called Shelbit, founded by Siavash Kayvanpour and based in Dubai, has processed more than four billion dollars since May 2024, according to research by blockchain investigator Rich Sanders. The money originates with a network of more than 2,000 online gambling sites that are banned under Iranian law and, per the reporting, controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The route is unglamorous and effective. Bets are placed on the gambling sites, proceeds are converted to cryptocurrency, and the funds pass through Shelbit into international markets, principally Binance. One gambling site alone sent 130 million dollars to Shelbit from May 2024. Iran's central bank sent 125 million. Shelbit moved 676 million to Binance over the same period, including 540 million after a regulatory fine, and around 20 million appears to come from bitcoin mining.
The people are already known to Iranian courts. Sasha Sobhani, who has 3.7 million Instagram followers, and the influencer and singer Pooyan Mokhtari began the gambling operations around 2020 and were convicted in absentia in 2023, receiving two year sentences. Mokhtari was arrested in Dubai in late March 2026, held for 35 days, and left for Iran on 8 July. Sobhani has a villa in Madrid; Mokhtari has been based in Hong Kong.
Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority issued an enforcement action against Shelbit on 24 July 2025, and the largest transfers came afterwards. Miad Maleki, a former official at the US Treasury's sanctions office, features in the reporting. Sanctions regimes are built to catch banks, and this is what evasion looks like when it routes around them entirely.