WASHINGTON (AP) — A pair of Iranian financiers and greater than a dozen individuals and companies throughout Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates have been sanctioned Tuesday for allegedly coordinating $100 million value of cryptocurrency transfers from the sale of Iranian oil for the advantage of Iran’s authorities and navy.
Treasury alleges that Iranian nationals Alireza Derakhshan and Arash Estaki Alivand facilitated the acquisition of over $100 million value of cryptocurrency for oil sales for the Iranian authorities. The pair then used a community of entrance firms throughout nations to switch the cryptocurrency funds, Treasury says.
So-called “shadow banking” networks like these evade sanctions by laundering cash by abroad entrance firms and cryptocurrency.
Treasury Underneath Secretary for Terrorism and Monetary Intelligence John Ok. Hurley stated in an announcement that the U.S. “will proceed to disrupt these key monetary streams that fund Iran’s weapons packages and malign actions in the Center East and past.”
To authorize the sanctions, the U.S. used an government order that President Donald Trump issued in February known as the Nationwide Safety Presidential Memorandum 2, which requires the U.S. to “drive Iran’s export of oil to zero.” It additionally states that Iran “can by no means be allowed to accumulate or develop nuclear weapons.”
Amongst different issues, the sanctions deny the individuals and companies entry to any property or monetary belongings held in the US and stop U.S. firms and residents from doing enterprise with them.
Iran and different sanctioned nations have more and more used cryptocurrency to evade sanctions. The crypto monitoring agency Chainalysis stories that sanctioned jurisdictions and entities, like Iran, received $15.8 billion in cryptocurrency in 2024, accounting for about 39% of all illicit crypto transactions.
The newest sanctions additionally come after France, Britain and Germany triggered a “ snapback mechanism ” that mechanically reimposes all United Nations sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, saying Iran has willfully departed from their 2015 nuclear deal that lifted the measures.
The U.S. and Iran tried to achieve a brand new nuclear deal earlier this 12 months, however these talks haven’t resumed because the 12-day Israeli bombardment of Iran’s nuclear and navy websites and the U.S. bombardment on June 22.
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Related Press reporter Stephanie Liechtenstein in Vienna contributed to this report.
