WASHINGTON-Today, as the people of Iran bravely take to the streets to demand basic freedoms and economic security, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is taking action against the architects of the Iranian regime’s brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators. OFAC today is also taking action against the shadow banking networks that allow Iran’s elite to steal and launder revenue generated by the country’s natural resources.
“The United States stands firmly behind the Iranian people in their call for freedom and justice,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “At the direction of President Trump, the Treasury Department is sanctioning key Iranian leaders involved in the brutal crackdown against the Iranian people. Treasury will use every tool to target those behind the regime’s tyrannical oppression of human rights.”
Among the Iranian security officials sanctioned today is Ali Larijani, the Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security (SCNS). Larijani was one of the first Iranian leaders to call for violence in response to the legitimate demands of the Iranian people.
OFAC is also designating 18 individuals and entities who play critical roles in laundering the proceeds of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical sales to foreign markets as part of the clandestine “shadow banking” networks of sanctioned Iranian financial institutions Bank Melli and Shahr Bank. Rather than using these revenues to benefit the Iranian people, who face economic calamity amid crippling inflation and massive deficits caused by the regime’s economic mismanagement, these funds are instead used to finance the regime’s repression of the Iranian people and its support for terrorist groups abroad.
Today’s action is being taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13553, which authorizes sanctions on certain person with respect to serious human rights abuses by the Government of Iran; E.O. 13876, which is focuses on the Supreme Leader of Iran and his affiliates; and
E.O. 13902 which targets Iran’s financial, petroleum, and petrochemical sectors. This action is in furtherance of the President’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2), which has impacted the Iranian regime’s ability to sell its petroleum to support its destabilizing behavior and recoup those funds amidst Treasury’s continued campaign of maximum economic pressure against Iran’s shadow banking, money laundering, and sanctions evasion networks. In 2025, OFAC sanctioned more than 875 persons, vessels, and aircraft as part of this campaign.
OFFICIALS RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLENCE TARGETING PROTESTERS
OFAC is designating several senior Iranian officials who oversee elements of the security forces that are violently repressing the Iranian people, including the Secretary of Iran’s SCNS, Ali Larijani. Larijani is responsible for coordinating the response to the protests on behalf of the Supreme Leader of Iran and has publicly called for Iranian security forces to use force to repress peaceful protesters.
Since the protests started in December 2025, Iran’s security forces have fired live ammunition at protesters, depriving the Iranian people of life and liberty. Elements of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have even attacked wounded protesters in one hospital in Ilam Province, firing tear gas and metal pellets into the hospital grounds and assaulting patients, family members, and medical workers. The officials sanctioned today-and their organizations-bear responsibility for the thousands of deaths and injuries of their fellow citizens as protests erupted in each of these provinces.
Mohammad Reza Hashemifar serves as the commander of the U.S.-designated Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) in Lorestan Province. Nematollah Bagheri is the IRGC commander of Lorestan Province. Iranian security forces in Lorestan Province have committed multiple atrocities targeting Iranian civilians. For example, security forces in Azna have shot multiple civilians, including one whose deceased body was held by security forces to coerce the family into falsely identifying the individual as a martyr for the government.
Azizollah Maleki and Yadollah Buali serve as the LEF and IRGC commanders for Fars Province, respectively, which is home to the major Iranian city of Shiraz, a prominent center of resistance against the Iranian regime. Security forces in Fars Province have killed countless peaceful demonstrators since the beginning of protests in December 2025, and Shiraz hospitals are so inundated with gunshot wound patients that no other types of patients can be admitted. Families of the killed have been forced to give false testimony on national television to support the regime’s narratives, lest their loved ones’ bodies never be returned.
Ali Larijani is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13876 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Supreme Leader of Iran. Mohammad Reza Hashemifar and Azizollah Maleki are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13553 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Yadollah Buali and Nematollah Bagheri are being designated pursuant to
E.O. 13553 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
BANK MELLI’s MONEY LAUNDERING NETWORK
Iran’s “shadow banking” network is the primary means through which Iran facilitates tens of billions of dollars’ worth of annual trade through the formal international financial system. At the heart of this system is the “rahbar” company, a type of entrusted company established by various Iranian banks for the purpose of managing the international transactions of its clients. Rahbar companies work closely with the Iranian banks’ Iran-based clients to facilitate international trade payments, relying on a web of front companies and exchange house in multiple jurisdictions.
As described above, Bank Melli has created an extensive network of cover companies to send and receive funds outside of Iran. Iran-based Nikan Pezhvak Aria Kish Company (Nikan Pezhvak) is the head of Bank Melli’s rahbar network in Iran. UAE-based Empire International Trading FZE (Empire International) is Bank Melli’s UAE-based rahbar company used for managing foreign currency. Empire International has provided customers with details of cover companies, enabling millions of dollars in foreign currency revenue.
Since 2024, Bank Melli’s network, run by Nikan Pezhvak, processed transactions worth billions of dollars for the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), the IRGC and the Central Bank of Iran, among others. As one example of how Nikan Pezhvak supports the rahbar network, in 2022, Nikan Pezhvak and Arya Sasol Polymer Company employees falsified an invoice and transferred funds through multiple jurisdictions before depositing the funds to the ultimate beneficiary outside of Iran.
Between 2024 and 2025, Empire International used Singapore-based Golden Mist PTE. Ltd. (Golden Mist) as a cover company to receive millions of dollars’ worth of revenue. In 2024, Golden Mist paid tens of millions to NIOC on behalf of a NIOC customer Petronix Energy Trading Ltd.
Mehdi Rashno, Bashir Abbaspour Qomi, and Hamid Reza Khamer serve on the board of Nikan Pezhvak.
Nikan Pezhvak Aria Kish Company, Mehdi Rashno, Bashir Abbaspour Qomi, Hamid Reza Khamer, Empire International Trading FZE, and Golden Mist PTE. Ltd. are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13902 for operating in the financial sector of the Iranian economy.
BANK SHAHR MONEY LAUNDERING NETWORK
UAE-based HMS Trading FZE (HMS Trading), a commercial front company registered in the UAE, acts on behalf of Shahr Bank as a key element in Iran’s oil export and rahbar shadow banking mechanism. HMS Trading and Iran-based Tejarat Hermes Energy Qeshm are primarily responsible for overseeing the commercial trade activities of Shar Bank’s rahbar network via numerous front companies. HMS Trading’s contracts, deals, and shadow banking network companies include front companies that have been used by NIOC, Naftiran Intertrade Co (NICO), Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd., and Armed Forces General Staff cover company Sepher Energy Jahan to sell Iranian oil abroad.
Treasury is also designating three senior officials of Tejarat Hermes Energy Qeshm. Masoud Mahdavi Ardakani is the current chairman of Tejarat Hermes Energy Qeshm, Masoud Shamani serves as the director of the company, and Akbar Givari is the vice chairman of Tejarat Hermes Energy Qeshm.
HMS Trading FZE is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13902 for being owned or controlled by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Shahr Bank. Tejarat Hermes Energy Qeshm is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13902 for operating in the petroleum and petrochemical sectors of the Iranian economy. Masoud Mahdavi Ardakani, Masoud Shamani, and Akbar Givari are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13902 for being owned or controlled by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Tejarat Hermes Energy Qeshm.
HMS Trading relies on a number of financial front companies, to include:
- UAE-based Shine Road Trading FZE;
- UAE-based Crystal Gas FZE;
- UAE-based Turkiz Fuel Trading LLC;
- UAE-based Desert Pulse Trading FZE;
- UAE-based Limonium Petrochemicals Trading LLC SOC;
- UAE-based Naviera Shipping and Trading FZ LLC; and
- United Kingdom-based Nanshan Ltd.
As part of the Shahr Bank exchange network, Shine Road Trading FZE (Shine Road) was used by NIOC to help with transactions involving the production, transportation, and export of Iranian crude oil and oil distillates. In late 2024, Shine Road Trading FZE was used to pay NIOC over $30 million for Iranian oil distillates to be delivered to Malaysia. Similarly, in 2024, Crystal Gas FZE was used to pay NIOC over $40 million for Iranian oil distillates.
In 2025, front companies Shine Road, Naviera Shipping and Trading FZ LLC, and Crystal Gas FZE were used for financial transactions for exports and imports of Iranian oil. Turkiz Fuel Trading LLC has previously signed multiple contracts with NIOC to deliver Iranian petrochemical products to East Asia. Desert Pulse Trading FZE, previously known as Siwan Trading International FZE, and Limonium Petrochemicals Trading LLC SOC, formerly known as Desert Oasis Petrochemical Trading Company, have been used to facilitate payments related to petroleum and petrochemical product shipments on behalf of Triliance.
Shine Road Trading FZE, Crystal Gas FZE, Turkiz Fuel Trading LLC, Desert Pulse Trading FZE, Limonium Petrochemicals Trading LLC SOC, Naviera Shipping and Trading FZ LLC, and Nanshan Ltd are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13902 for operating in the petroleum sector of the Iranian economy
SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked persons.
Violations of U.S. sanctions may result in the imposition of civil or criminal penalties on U.S. and foreign persons. OFAC may impose civil penalties for sanctions violations on a strict liability basis. OFAC’s Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines provide more information regarding OFAC’s enforcement of U.S. economic sanctions. In addition, financial institutions and other persons may risk exposure to sanctions for engaging in certain transactions or activities involving designated or otherwise blocked persons. The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any designated or blocked person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.