US Treasury Department Issues New Sanctions Related to Iran

SadaNews - The US Treasury Department reported late Friday to Saturday that the United States has issued new sanctions related to Iran.

The department's website stated that sanctions were imposed on Iranian businessman Ali Ansari, accused of managing a global financial network serving Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and several senior officials of the regime and the "Revolutionary Guard".

The Treasury said that Ansari established a wide system "for embezzling public funds and transferring them into investments and properties abroad; enabling him to build a financial empire in several countries (...) through shell companies and complex bank accounts".

Washington accused Ansari of exploiting his previous position as owner and manager of the Ayandeh Bank, which was closed in 2025, to obtain billions of dollars in loans for his private companies, causing significant damage to the Iranian economy, at a time when the funds were used to expand foreign investments that the department said benefit Mojtaba Khamenei and a circle of senior regime officials.

The sanctions also included the company "Smart Global", registered in Saint Kitts and Nevis, which the Treasury says is used to manage part of these assets and investments.

The sanctions targeted three Iranian exchange companies, which Washington said transfer billions of dollars annually for sanctioned Iranian banks, using fake companies to conceal the identities of the beneficiaries of financial transactions.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Binsent confirmed that his country will continue to use all available tools "to isolate the Iranian supreme leader and senior regime officials from the global financial system", emphasizing that the targeted assets "will be preserved for the Iranian people".

Under the sanctions, all assets of listed individuals and entities within the United States or under US jurisdiction are frozen, and US persons and institutions are prohibited from engaging in any financial transactions with them, with the possibility of imposing secondary sanctions on foreign entities that continue to engage with them.