The US has imposed sanctions on Shelbit, a crypto firm founded in Georgia by an Iranian national, for allegedly being part of a covert network supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and evading sanctions. Georgia’s National Bank has said the firm is not a regulated entity under Georgian law.

The US imposed the sanctions on 8 August. The company was registered and founded by Iranian national Savash Kaivanpur, who according to the US also holds Dominican and Afghanistani passports.

According to the reasoning behind the decision, the company was part of a covert network used by the IRGC to evade sanctions. As with other Russian-linked crypto entities previously implicated in similar cases, Georgia’s National Bank has distanced itself from any responsibility following the announcement.

The National Bank has clarified that LLC Shelbit (SHPS Shelbit) is not a regulated entity under Georgian law. Operating as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) in Georgia requires mandatory registration with the bank, but Shelbit never applied for it — and Business Registry records show its registration has since been canceled. The bank stressed that its regulatory framework sets strict market-entry requirements to filter out entities linked to illicit activity, and that its VASP regulations meet FATF standards, as reflected in MONEYVAL’s 2024 assessment giving Georgia a ‘largely compliant’ rating on Recommendation 15 — on par with the UK and France.

National Bank Governor Natia Turnava, as well as a spokesperson, confirmed the statement without elaborating further when contacted by OC Media.

On Thursday, the Vice President of the National Bank, Nino Jeladze, also confirmed the bank’s position through an email statement.

‘The fact that several sanctioned companies have avoided registration once again confirms that the National Bank’s regulatory framework and market entry requirements are strict’, Jeladze said.

However, Georgian economist and founder of the Free Businessperson’s Association Paata Barakhtari said that analysts ‘already had a sense that dark money was flowing into the economy’.

‘The other issue is how that money circulates among the public — since it isn’t inclusive money, it’s money laundering, speculative capital moving through the market rather than money that benefits the economy or the wellbeing of ordinary citizens’, Barakhtari told OC Media.

Many Iranians have taken part in protests against Tehran in Georgia, while the Georgian Dream-led government maintains normalised ties with Iran.

On Monday, the Economic Policy Research Centre published a report on the growing presence of Iranian businesses in the country, saying that the number of Iranian companies registered in Georgia had grown by 510% since 2012.

The centre said there were over 12,800 Iranian companies registered in Georgia between 2025–2026, but noted that this growth is not reflected as a distinct, notable trend in foreign direct investment (FDI) data or official financial statistics.

These figures are not reflected to any comparable degree in employment numbers, business turnover, or official investment data.

Batu Kutelia, a Senior Fellow at the Delphi Global Research Centre, told OC Media that Georgia is a laundromat for sanctions.