USA Targeting Iran’s Shadow Banking Network
25 June 2024
Matthew Miller, Department Spokesperson
The United States is today sanctioning nearly 50 entities and individuals that make up a covert network used by Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to gain illicit access to the international financial system. Iran’s MODAFL and the IRGC generate revenue from illicit trade and then leverage a “shadow banking” network of Iranian exchange houses and dozens of foreign cover companies under their control to flow funds for terrorism and other activities that threaten innocent people around the world.
The Iranian regime uses its profits to advance a wide range of destabilizing activities, including terrorism, lethal plotting and transnational repression, the development, procurement, and proliferation of advanced weapons systems, extensive human rights abuses, and nuclear activities that lack any credible peaceful purpose. In particular, this “shadow banking” revenue supports the Iranian regime’s transfer of weapons and funds to its militant proxies and partners in the Middle East region, including Yemen’s Houthis who continue a campaign of reckless attacks on global shipping, as well as the transfer of deadly weapons to Russia for use in its war of aggression against Ukraine.
The United States will continue to target those who engage in systemic money laundering in support of MODAFL, the IRGC, and other malign actors.
The Department of the Treasury’s actions are being taken pursuant to E.O. 13224. For more information, please see Treasury’s press release.
