U.S. Sanctions Two Dozen People, Entities Over Ties to Iran

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned 25 individuals and entities it accused of transferring more than $1 billion dollars and euros to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and Iran’s defense ministry.

Some of the people and entities obtained millions of dollars worth of vehicles for the defense ministry, the Treasury Department said in a statement Tuesday.

The Treasury said the penalties expose “an extensive sanctions evasion network established by the Iranian regime, which it increasingly relies on as the United States’ maximum pressure campaign severely constricts the regime’s sources of revenue.”

Those sanctioned included Ansar Bank Brokerage Company, the Treasury said.

“This once again exposes to the international community the dangerous risks of operating in an Iranian economy that is deliberately opaque,” Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said in a statement.

In separate sanctions announced last week, the U.S. sanctioned 14 individuals and 17 entities tied to Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, “whose key personnel played a central role in the Iranian regime’s past nuclear weapons effort,” the Treasury said in a statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Saleha Mohsin in Washington at smohsin2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Joshua Gallu

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.