Action Disrupts Iraqi Bank Enabling Iranian Sanctions Evasion and Cuts Off Key Foreign Currency Lifelines
WASHINGTON-Today, as part of Operation Economic Outcast, the U.S. Department of the Treasury disrupted Iran’s efforts to infiltrate the international financial system through an Iraqi bank that also supports Iran’s terrorist proxy militia groups. By dismantling these institutions-including offshore banks and shadow financiers that have moved hundreds of millions of dollars through shell companies and foreign‑exchange specialists across the Middle East and Asia-Treasury is severing critical revenue streams that sustain Iran’s military and proxy forces.
“The noose is tightening around Iran’s economy, and not even Iran’s so-called allies can save it,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “The Department of the Treasury will not relent until the Iranian regime’s coffers are empty and every remaining financial lifeline sustaining its war machine has been severed.”
In coordination with today’s action, the U.S. Department of State is concurrently designating Cuba-based Banco Internacional de Comercio S.A. (BICSA) pursuant to Section 2(a)(i)(A) of Executive Order (E.O.) 14404 for operating in or having operated in the financial services sector of the Cuban economy. BICSA has provided services to the designated Iran-based Karafarin Bank since at least 2022.
These designations, coupled with additional sanctions on Iran’s shadow banking networks, cut off some of the few remaining financial lifelines the regime can access to prop up its failing economy and fund its military. The designations also expose the regime’s deliberate use of complex offshore structures and front companies to circumvent sanctions and stabilize its economy despite mounting pressure. Taken together, today’s measures target the core financial architecture that enables Iran to evade international scrutiny and fund its destabilizing regional activities. Treasury’s action is being taken pursuant to E.O. 13902, which targets certain sectors of the Iranian economy, including Iran’s financial and petroleum sectors.
OPERATION ECONOMIC OUTCAST IS ISOLATING THE IRANIAN REGIME
Announced by Secretary Bessent on August 24, 2026, dubbed Economic D-Day, Operation Economic Outcast is severing the remaining economic lifelines that sustain the Iranian regime. Treasury has mapped the networks, facilitators, and financial channels that Iran uses to smuggle oil, evade sanctions, and fund terror. Working with partners across the U.S. government, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Gulf partners, and others, Treasury is targeting any source of the regime’s illicit revenue, as well as its sanctions evasion schemes to move funds.