US Treasury tightens Iran sanctions net, cuts off Canadian money firms over illicit transactions

US Treasury tightens Iran sanctions net, cuts off Canadian money firms over illicit transactions

US Treasury tightens Iran sanctions net, cuts off Canadian money firms over illicit transactions

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks during a press conference

The US Treasury Department has imposed financial sanctions on eight money services firms based in Canada, alleging that they facilitated transactions with sanctioned Iranian entities.

The sanctions effectively cut the firms off from the US dollar-based financial system, blocking any assets they may hold in the United States and prohibiting transactions with US persons or entities.

"Canada is to hundreds of money services businesses that enable the movement of funds into and out of Iran, both through cash-based value transfer systems and by converting cash into digital assets to send across borders", the department wrote in its release.

US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent defended the move, saying, “Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial facilitators that provide sanctions evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies.” He added, “Treasury will pursue and disrupt the Iranian regime’s financial channels anywhere in the world.”

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named the eight businesses as Diverse Trade Inc, operating as Million Exchange; 1380079 BC Limited; Top PC Technician Inc; NIA Nations Currency Ltd; 2397639 Ontario Ltd, operating as Farah Exchange; CCC Inc; B Galaxy Inc; and Darvish Exchange.

The companies are based in Ontario and British Columbia.

According to the Treasury, the businesses facilitated the exchange of Iranian rials and other currencies for digital assets, enabling transactions involving Iran. The department said several had dealt with sanctioned Iranian digital asset exchanges and addresses linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The designations were coordinated with Canada’s Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC), the US department said.

In a separate action, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an order effectively cutting Seychelles-incorporated cryptocurrency exchanger MEXC Global off from the US financial system. The order bars US financial institutions from processing fund transfers involving the platform.

The Treasury said MEXC Global had facilitated at least $16 billion in illicit transactions linked to sanctions evasion involving Iran, North Korea and Russia, as well as cybercrime.

It said the platform had also processed transactions involving other sanctioned actors.

“Financial institutions cannot have it both ways: Either you support the Iranian regime, or you have access to the U.S. financial system,” Bessent said in the Treasury statement. He added: “Treasury will continue to sever the Iranian regime’s economic lifelines and thwart its desperate attempts to circumvent US sanctions using digital assets.”

The MEXC order will take effect 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register, according to the Treasury.

The latest measures form part of Washington’s Operation Economic Outcast, launched in August to disrupt the Iranian regime’s financial channels and its use of digital assets to evade sanctions.

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