US adds more than 50 new designations in fresh Iran sanctions

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States on Tuesday sanctioned more than 50 companies, individuals, and commercial vessels accused of “generating billions of dollars” for Iran and its armed forces, the US Treasury Department said, framing the move as part of the administration’s broader Economic Fury campaign against Tehran.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday “designated a prominent Iranian foreign currency exchange house and associated front companies that oversee hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks,” the Department said in a statement.

The company involved is identified as Amin Exchange, which acts as the financial hub connecting 51 newly designated targets. According to the statement, the exchange uses four executives - including Iranian, Turkish, and Dominican nationals - to manage a money-laundering network.

This network reportedly operates eight international shell companies based in China, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates and are said to exist mainly to hide Amin Exchange’s activities and process hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign currency transactions.

The network is also linked to 19 ship-owning and management companies located in jurisdictions including Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Liberia, the Marshall Islands, Panama, and the British Virgin Islands, which are used to handle logistics and financial transactions tied to covert trade.

Amin Exchange is further accused of laundering money from a “shadow fleet” of 19 oil, chemical, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tankers registered under flags such as Panama, Hong Kong, Palau, Barbados, San Marino, Comoros, Cameroon, Gabon, and Vanuatu.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is quoted as stating that “Iran’s shadow banking system facilitates the illicit transfer of funding for terrorist purposes,” warning that “as the Treasury systematically dismantles Tehran’s shadow banking system and shadow fleet under Economic Fury, financial institutions must be alert to how the regime manipulates the international financial system to wreak havoc.”

The latest designations come in support of the Economic Fury campaign launched in “response to the Iranian government’s continued threats to global security,” the Treasury said in a late April statement.

The US and Israel launched a large-scale aerial campaign against Iran in late February, striking thousands of targets across the country during six weeks of hostilities.

In response, Iran carried out thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets - particularly in Gulf Arab states - as well as launching retaliatory attacks against Israel.

The Iranian response has also included strikes by factions aligned with the Iran-led ‘Axis of Resistance’, including by shadowy armed groups in Iraq that have claimed numerous attacks against alleged US targets in the country and the wider region.

The US and Iran later agreed to a Pakistan-mediated ceasefire on April 8, halting fighting to allow space for talks. While the first round of discussions concluded without a final agreement on April 11, a second round has yet to take place, as the war has yet to fully conclude.

In parallel with the diplomatic efforts, Iran and the US have engaged in tit-for-tat maritime measures. Tehran has tightened its grip on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, while Washington initiated a maritime blockade on Iranian ports on April 13.

Around the same time, the US in mid-April launched the high-intensity Economic Fury campaign as the financial counterpart to its February military camapign against Iran - dubbed Operation Epic Fury - to isolate Tehran from the global financial system and cut off its remaining revenue streams.

It further announced that it would not renew any sanctions waivers for Iranian crude oil, effectively criminalizing the purchase of Iranian oil, including stranded oil at sea, and warned global banks - particularly in Europe, Asia, and the Gulf - that they will face secondary sanctions and be cut off from access to the US dollar, if they facilitate transactions for Tehran.