US imposes sanctions on Iran/UAE currency exchange network

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) has designated three entities and six Iranian individuals linked to an ‘extensive’ currency exchange network in Iran and the UAE. The network allegedly transferred millions of dollars to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ foreign arm, the Qods Force (‘IRGC-QF’). The IRGC, which the US has accused of funding terrorist groups in the region, has been sanctioned by the US since October 2017 and the IRGC-QF since 2007. The announcement came two days after President Trump announced that he was pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran: the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (‘JCPOA’). The US believes that Iran’s Central Bank was complicit in the scheme and ‘actively supported’ the network’s activities.

‘The Iranian regime and its central bank have abused access to entities in the UAE to acquire US dollars to fund the IRGC-QF’s malign activities, including to fund and arm its regional proxy groups, by concealing the purpose for which the US dollars were acquired,’ Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement.

Following the US’s rejection of the JCPOA, sanctions on the purchase or acquisition of US dollar banknotes by the government of Iran will be re-imposed on 7 August.

The entities listed are: Jahan Aras Kish; the Joint Partnership of Mohammadreza Khedmati and Associates; and Rashed Exchange, also known as Safri Rashed. The individuals sanctioned are: Meghdad Amini; Mohammad Hasan Khoda’I; Sa’id Najafpur; Mas’ud Nikbakht; Foad Salehi; and Mohammadreza Khedmati Valadzaghard.

The property of all those designated subject to US jurisdiction is blocked and US individuals are banned from engaging in transactions with them. OFAC warns that foreign financial institutions that ‘knowingly’ facilitate significant transactions with listed individuals or entities may face secondary sanctions.

The US Department of the Treasury’s press release can be found here:
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm0383

OFAC’s list of those designated is at:
https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20180510.aspx