Treasury officials consulted with Jeffrey Epstein about using cryptocurrency during negotiations with Iran over nuclear deal, even as he made investments in blockchain technology.
Today, shipping companies are paying cryptocurrency tolls to Tehran for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, as the Iranian government seeks to shield payments from seizure by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Roughly $8 billion flowed through Iran’s cryptocurrency exchanges last year, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) moves billions more through foreign exchanges like Binance, where Chinese firms can secretly pay for Iranian oil without fear of U.S. retaliation.
More than a decade ago, however, the Iranian government was reluctant to embrace cryptocurrency, suspicious of possible U.S. involvement in the development of Bitcoin. The U.S. was dubious about the technology as well, seeing it principally as a way to sidestep financial controls.
“The U.S. government thinks Iran can use bitcoin to bypass all the sanctions and Iran thinks this is all a game by the CIA,” a spokesperson for CoinAva, Iran’s first crypto exchange, told CoinDesk in 2013. Even so, Iran’s National Cyberspace Center began the process of regulating digital currencies in March 2014, while looking for hedges against the pressure of U.S. sanctions.
The U.S. hesitance around cryptocurrency is evident in the emails of Jeffrey Epstein—a figure who was keenly interested in developing cryptocurrency and consulted on it with the U.S. Treasury Department. Epstein’s interventions came at a time when the U.S. was pursuing a détente with Iran over its nuclear program, and the growth and development of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were beginning to reshape the global financial landscape. (All the emails are linked and available to read on Jmail—the indispensable, searchable inbox of Epstein’s emails that mimics Gmail.) (more...)
Epstein Advised U.S. Treasury on Crypto During Obama’s Iran Sanctions Push
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