WASHINGTON (AA): The U.S. issued sanctions Tuesday on a network of over twodozen companies and individuals alleged to facilitate more than $1 billionin transfers to Iran’s military, including the elite Islamic RevolutionaryGuard Corps (IRGC).
The network was also critical in helping Iran’s defense ministry procuremillions of dollars worth of vehicles, the Treasury Department said inannouncing the penalties.
“We are targeting a vast network of front companies and individuals locatedin Iran, Turkey, and the UAE to disrupt a scheme the Iranian regime hasused to illicitly move more than a billion dollars in funds,” TreasurySecretary Steven Mnuchin said.
Among those blacklisted are Iran-based Ansar Bank, which the Treasury saidis controlled by the IRGC and has been used to establish a front companyscheme that spanned Iran, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
Ayatollah Ebrahimi, whom the Treasury said is the bank’s managing director,was also blacklisted.
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Part of the scheme described by the U.S. included the conversion of Iranianrials into over a billion U.S. dollars and euros through Ansar’s exchangehouse.
Alireza Atabaki, the exchange’s managing director, was also hit withsanctions.
The new penalties come amid the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure”campaign aimed at bringing Iran to the negotiating table after PresidentTrump unilaterally withdrew from a multinational accord world powers struckwith Iran to curtail its nuclear program. U.S. persons are generallyprohibited from doing business with those individuals and entities who weresanctioned Tues-day. Any property belonging to those individuals andentities subject to U.S. jurisdiction has been frozen.
