U.S. Department of the Treasury designates Amin Exchange and more than 50 Iran-linked persons and vessels in shadow banking and oil shipping action

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated more than 50 Iran-linked companies, individuals, vessels, and vessel owners or managers tied to Iran’s foreign exchange and petroleum trade. The action targets Amin Exchange, an Iranian exchange house that Treasury said handled hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions for sanctioned Iranian banks and exporters, and 19 vessels involved in Iranian petroleum and petrochemical shipments that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. The designations, made under Executive Order 13902, also cover Amin Exchange’s owner and senior officials and eight front companies in China, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates that Treasury said were used for cross-border money laundering and payments linked to Iran’s petroleum, petrochemical, metals, manufacturing, and automobile sectors. In parallel, 19 shipping companies were designated for operating in Iran’s petroleum or petrochemical sectors, with the related vessels added to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List as blocked property. As a result, property and interests in property of the designated persons that are in the United States or under U.S. control must be blocked, and entities owned 50 percent or more by blocked persons are also blocked.