The U.S. Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions on eight Canadian money transfer companies, which it says did business with sanctioned Iranian organizations.
The companies facilitated the exchange of Iranian rials and other currencies for digital assets, allowing international transactions to be carried out, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement on Friday.
The sanctions, intended to isolate the companies from the dollar-based financial system, are the latest in a series of Treasury Department actions against firms outside the United States.
According to the Treasury Department, these companies facilitated transactions with sanctioned Iranian digital asset exchanges, as well as digital asset addresses linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Bessent says Canada cannot be a safe haven
“Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial intermediaries providing sanctions evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “The Treasury Department will identify and disrupt the Iranian regime’s financial channels anywhere in the world.”
Cointelegraph reported in August that the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, had targeted cryptocurrency exchanges facilitating the transfer of funds for Iran’s IRGC. At the time, Bessent said the U.S. planned to “increase economic pressure” on Iran, focusing on financial networks funding the country’s regime “in dollars, rials, or cryptocurrency.”
The statement said the measures announced Friday continue the Treasury Department’s campaign to “disrupt the regime’s use of digital assets to finance terrorism, human rights abuses, and attacks on U.S. service members and allies.”
It added that the actions were coordinated with FINTRAC, Canada’s financial intelligence unit.
The statement noted that some of the organizations targeted by the measures had changed their names and addresses to avoid detection.
Reward of up to $20 million for information on Iran’s nuclear program
In a separate action taken Friday, the U.S. Rewards for Justice program offered up to $20 million and possible relocation in exchange for information on Iran’s nuclear program, including details about its facilities, equipment, and personnel.
The statement said Iran’s failure to comply with IAEA safeguards had caused the agency to lose “continuity of knowledge” about Iran’s production of enriched uranium and components such as centrifuges.