The Treasury Department, acting with the United Arab Emirates where front companies were located, said it had disrupted the large network’s operations, and accused Iran’s central bank of helping the group access U.S. dollars held in foreign banks to sidestep Western sanctions.
“The Iranian regime and its central bank have abused access to entities in the UAE to acquire U.S. dollars to fund the IRGC-QF’s activities, by concealing the purpose for which the U.S. dollars were acquired,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
The six individuals and three entities, including front companies for the IRGC-QF and currency traders, were sanctioned under U.S. regulations targeting specially designated global terrorist suspects and Iranian financial activity, the Treasury said.
The UAE said later it had placed the same companies and people on its list of terrorist and terrorist organizations doing business with the IRGC-QF.
Trump’s decision has given grace periods of 90 days to six months for companies to wind down their trade with Iran.
The Treasury Department said one of the companies sanctioned was also involved in retrieving oil revenue from foreign bank accounts held by the Iranian central bank for IRGC-QF activities.
In February 2015, Reuters reported that at least $1 billion in cash had been smuggled into Iran despite sanctions. Before it reached Iran, the cash was passed through money changers and front companies in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates and Iraq, sources told Reuters.
