The United States unveiled another round of sanctions targeting 10 individuals and 27 entities tied to Iran’s financial network, spotlighting the crucial financial role it believes Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates play to help Tehran avoid Washington’s efforts.
Aimed at Iranian nationals and a mainland Chinese national as well as Hong Kong and UAE entities, the sanctions were announced a day after US President Donald Trump’s phone call with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and amid Washington’s efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Tehran.
According to the US Treasury Department’s statement on Friday, a financial network led by Iranian brothers Mansour, Nasser and Fazlolah Zarringhalam “laundered” billions of US dollars through several Hong Kong-based and UAE-based front companies “under their control”.
“The regime leverages this network to evade sanctions and move money from its oil and petrochemical sales, which help the regime fund its nuclear and missile programmes and support its terrorist proxies,” the US Treasury Department said of Iran in its statement.
“To justify payments for sanctioned goods, shadow banking brokers may generate fictitious invoices or transaction details,” it added. “Front companies are created in jurisdictions with lower levels of regulatory supervision so that they can avoid scrutiny of their business practices or ownership.”
The sanctioned Hong Kong-based companies include Hero Companion Limited, Plzcome Limited and Kinlere Trading Limited, among others.
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