US Treasury Sanctions Iran's Informal Financial Network, Notes VTB Link

The US Department of the Treasury has sanctioned Iran's informal financial network, explicitly noting its currency exchange linkage with Russia’s state-owned bank VTB in the sanctioning documents. The direct targets of this measure are not VTB itself but Iranian financial network officials and related companies. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on August 7 that it had sanctioned multiple networks supporting Iran's fund transfers across several countries. The Treasury documented that an employee of Iran's Shahr Bank, Saeed Ghasempour, coordinated currency exchanges between the Iranian network and Russia’s VTB bank.

The US Department of the Treasury stated that assets of sanctioned individuals within the United States will be frozen and that transactions involving Americans or conducted within the U.S. are generally prohibited. It remains unclear whether this connection between VTB and Iran's financial network has expanded into additional virtual asset-related sanction enforcement.