Breaking News

The Office of Foreign Assets Control disclosed a $1.1 million penalty Tuesday against an unidentified individual who allegedly used hawaladars in Canada to move at least $560,000 from the U.S. to Iran in 75 separate transactions from 2019 to 2022.

OFAC claimed in a five-page notice that the suspect, “U.S. Person-1,” used the funds to “purchase, renovate and operate a 19-suite hotel on the Caspian Sea in Iran” after they arrived from Canada into personal and corporate accounts he or she controlled at Bank Melli and Bank Keshavarzi.

The agency re-blacklisted both banks in November 2018, six months after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from a global nuclear accord with the Islamic Republic.