Action Targets More than 50 Companies, Individuals, and Vessels Generating Revenue for the Regime
WASHINGTON-Today, as a part of Economic Fury, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated a prominent Iranian foreign currency exchange house and associated front companies that oversee hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks. Collectively, Iranian exchange houses facilitate billions of dollars in foreign currency transactions each year, enabling the regime and its armed forces to evade sanctions, access the international financial system, and move funds derived from oil and petrochemical sales.
OFAC today also blocked 19 vessels involved in Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals shipments to foreign customers, transactions that have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Together, today’s actions further reduce the revenue available to the Iranian regime to develop weapons, support terrorist proxies, and siphon funds outside Iran for personal enrichment.
“Iran’s shadow banking system facilitates the illicit transfer of funding for terrorist purposes,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “As Treasury systematically dismantles Tehran’s shadow banking system and shadow fleet under Economic Fury, financial institutions must be alert to how the regime manipulates the international financial system to wreak havoc.”
ECONOMIC FURY DELIVERS MAXIMUM PRESSURE ON IRAN
The Treasury Department is maintaining maximum pressure on Iran and targeting the regime’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds. Treasury is aggressively advancing Economic Fury and has disrupted billions in projected oil revenue, taken actions that have led to the freezing of nearly half a billion dollars in regime-linked cryptocurrency, and cracked down on Tehran’s shadow banking networks. In addition, Treasury has designated networks supplying weapons and other military components to Iran. Treasury has also sanctioned a corrupt Iraqi official who has facilitated the sale of oil along with Iran-backed militias operating in Iraq.
Treasury will vigorously target both traditional sanctions evasion schemes and the exploitation of digital assets while continuing to freeze funds stolen from the Iranian people. Treasury is also prepared to take action against any foreign company supporting illicit Iranian commerce, including airlines, and, as necessary, may impose secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions that facilitate Iran’s activities-including those connected to the People’s Republic of China’s independent “teapot” oil refineries.
Through the blockade, the Trump Administration is directly targeting the regime’s primary revenue stream. Any person or vessel facilitating the illicit trade of oil or other commodities, through covert trade or financial channels, risks exposure to U.S. sanctions.
Today’s action is being taken pursuant to E.O. 13902, which targets persons operating in Iran’s financial, petroleum, and petrochemical sectors. These designations build on a series of OFAC actions targeting Iran’s shadow banking mechanisms, including exchange houses, Iranian bank rahbar companies, digital asset exchanges, and facilitators used to evade sanctions.