The United States is stepping up pressure on Iran’s sanctions evasion network.
On August 7, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated 18 entities and individuals that play pivotal roles in the Iranian regime’s efforts to generate revenue and circumvent U.S. sanctions.
Facing severe financial constraints due to international isolation, Iran has engineered sophisticated banking schemes and alternate payment messaging systems specifically designed to bypass sanctions and protect its ability to collect export revenues, particularly from illicit petroleum sales. These systems also enable the regime’s continued funding of its proxies and oppression of the Iranian people.
Additionally, financial and information technology firms designated today have provided the regime with advanced surveillance technologies that Iran’s security services deploy to restrict internet access and to target women who violate the regime’s mandatory hijab restrictions.
“As a result of President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign and increasing isolation from the global financial system, the Iranian regime is running out of places to hide,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.
Treasury is designating the RUNC Exchange System Company, also known as RUNC International Banking Solutions (RUNC), for its role in developing Iran’s Cross-Border Interbank Messaging System, designed to allow Iran and its allies to circumvent controls in place on more commonly used payment systems.
Also designated is Ali Morteza Birang, the primary board member and managing director of RUNC; Mohammad Shafipour the vice chairman of the board of directors; and Seyyed Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi, the chairman of the board of directors. These men are being designated for having acted for or on behalf of the RUNC Exchange System Company.
In 2021, the Iranian Supreme Council for National Security (SCNS) authorized the issuance of a special license by the Central Bank of Iran to establish Cyrus Offshore Bank (Cyrus Bank) in Iran’s Kish Free Zone area on Kish Island. The SCNS authorized the establishment of Cyrus Bank as a mechanism for the Iranian government to avoid sanctions while making purchases abroad, with Cyrus Bank secretly owned and staffed by the sanctioned Iranian financial institution Parsian Bank.
Cyrus Bank is being designated for operating in the financial sector of the Iranian economy.
It is headed by Parsian Bank board member Hadi Nouri and its activities are managed by Parsian Bank official Alireza Fatahinojokambari. Adel Berjisian is an authorized signatory on Cyrus Bank matters. All three are being sanctioned.
Secretary Bessent warned that the U.S. “will continue to disrupt Iran’s schemes aimed at evading our sanctions, block its access to revenue, and starve its weapons programs of capital in order to protect the American people.”
