The United States is further countering Iran’s destabilizing activities by designating an international illicit financial network, along with several individuals and entities based in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.
These networks have facilitated the sale of Iranian oil, with proceeds benefiting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL). These funds are used to support regional terrorist proxies and advance weapons systems that pose a direct threat to U.S. forces and its allies, including ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Iranian “shadow banking” networks like these, run by trusted illicit financial facilitators, abuse the international financial system, and evade sanctions by laundering money through overseas front companies and cryptocurrency.
Among the individuals sanctioned on September 16 are Iranian nationals Alireza Derakhshan and Arash Estaki Alivand. They coordinated to facilitate the purchase of over $100 million worth of cryptocurrency for oil sales for the Iranian government. Derakhshan and Alivand used a network of front companies in multiple foreign jurisdictions to transfer the cryptocurrency funds.
These are the second round of sanctions targeting Iran’s shadow banking infrastructure since President Donald Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 2, directing a campaign of maximum pressure on Iran. The IRGC-QF was designated in 2007 for its support to multiple terrorist organizations, and its parent organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 2017 for its support to the IRGC-QF. MODAFL was designated in 2019 for assisting, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or financial or other services to or in support of the IRGC-QF.
The Treasury Department has acted against multiple shadow banking networks, including on July 9, 2025 when OFAC designated a similar shadow banking network involved in the movement of oil proceeds on behalf of the IRGC-QF, and June 6, 2025, OFAC designated a large network tied to the Iranian Zarginhalam brothers that laundered billions through exchange houses and front companies on behalf of the IRGC-QF and other sanctioned Iranian entities.
“Iranian entities rely on shadow banking networks to evade sanctions and move millions through the international financial system,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John Hurley. “Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, we will continue to disrupt these key financial streams that fund Iran’s weapons programs and malign activities in the Middle East and beyond.”
The United States is further countering Iran’s destabilizing activities by designating an international illicit financial network, along with several individuals and entities based in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.
