The Wall Street Journal by Sarah Portlock
WASHINGTON--The U.S. Treasury Department targeted a Swiss-based Iranian oil-trading company, a Malaysian bank and an Iranian businessman for their aid to the Iranian regime.
The Treasury Department said Thursday that a network of front companies was moving billions of dollars on behalf of the Iranian regime, including to a company affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Among the sanctions, the U.S. administration designated Naftiran Intertrade Co, the oil-trading company based in Switzerland, for being owned or controlled by the National Iranian Oil Co., which has been previously sanctioned. The businessman, Babak Morteza Zanjani, has provided financial and technological support for those oil companies, the Treasury said.
Malaysia's First Islamic Investment Bank was also designated, the Treasury said.
"As international sanctions have become increasingly stifling, Iran has resorted to criminal money laundering techniques, moving its oil and money under false names and pretenses," said David Cohen, the Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
The designations prohibit transactions between Americans and those named, and freezes any assets designated groups may have under U.S. jurisdiction.
