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U.S. Imposes Fresh Sanctions Against Iran, Blacklisting Three Banks
By Brian Orsak
printThe Bush administration imposed sweeping sanctions against Iranian banks, companies and military organizations on Thursday to increase the pressure on Iran to stop its purported pursuit of nuclear weapons. The move, which freezes assets held in U.S. jurisdiction and denies the sanctioned entities access to the U.S. financial system, is the harshest step against the Islamic theocracy in more than a decade. Among those named in the sanctions were three Iranian state owned banks-including Bank Melli, the country's largest-and the Iran's elite military wing, the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Also blacklisted were the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics,...
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U.S. officials Tuesday charged a blacklisted Chinese national with using shell companies to maintain accounts at American banks and offered five million dollars for information on his whereabouts.
The financial clearing subsidiary of Deutsche Börse AG will pay the U.S. Treasury Department's sanctions enforcer $152 million for holding money in New York-based accounts on behalf of Iran's central bank.
As early as Monday, banks will be able to do what has become seemingly unthinkable in the sanctions compliance field during recent years: ramp up their ties to Iran.
The chairman of a Senate committee vowed Thursday to block additional sanctions against Iran in an effort to protect last month's multilateral accord to suspend portions of the country's nuclear program.
A U.S. official's threat last month of economic sanctions against four Chinese banks is likely to be toothless given economic and enforcement hurdles, say sanctions analysts.
U.S. officials have secretly solicited and, at times, received data from foreign banks on accounts tied to Iranian entities, without notifying the accountholders of the requests, say sources.
Businesses and individuals seeking to evade sanctions that target Iran and other nations may be utilizing back-to-back letters of credit to disguise their roles in transactions, say trade analysts.
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The U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted four companies and one person tied to Iran's elite military branch Wednesday amid efforts to coalesce international support to restrict business with the Persian country.
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The U.S. Treasury Department added Iran's national oil company and its subsidiaries to its list of Iranian-owned entities Wednesday, effectively prohibiting most transactions with the companies.
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The bank, which is based in London, expects to reach a "resolution" with the U.S. Justice Department, U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and New York District Attorneys office, Lloyd's said in a statement Friday.
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