The American government took new economic and judicial sanctions against Iran on Friday, February 2, at a time when its armed forces carried out strikes in Iran and Syria, targeting Tehran's Revolutionary Guards and pro-Iranian groups.
Justice Minister Merrick Garland and the federal prosecutor for the jurisdiction of Manhattan in New York, Damian Williams, announced charges of
"terrorism, sanctions evasion, fraud and money laundering against seven figures in a money laundering network oil and orchestrated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a foreign terrorist organization, and its Quds Force
, its elite unit.
The Revolutionary Guards constitute the ideological army of the Tehran regime.
In a press release, American justice accuses Iranian officials and Turkish executives of an Ankara energy group of
“laundering and selling Iranian oil to buyers linked to China, Russia and Syria to finance the Quds Force , support of Iran's terrorism
.
The Manhattan federal prosecutor's office also announced the
"seizure of $108 million that Revolutionary Guard companies were trying to launder through the accounts of American financial institutions
. "
“Iran uses its black market oil sales channels to finance its criminal activities, such as its support for the Revolutionary Guards, Hamas, Hezbollah and other affiliated terrorist groups,”
the official said. Minister Garland in the press release.
Shahed drones and attempted cyberattacks
On Friday morning, the US Treasury made public new sanctions against Iranian companies and individuals, or providing support to them, involved in the manufacturing of Shahed combat drones and in attempted cyberattacks on infrastructure in the United States.
Natural and legal persons are accused of having links to or belonging to the Revolutionary Guards.
In 2021, cyberattacks targeted a pediatric hospital in Boston (north-east) but also several European countries and Israel.
“The deliberate targeting of critical infrastructure by Iranian cyber actors is an unacceptable and dangerous act
(that)
the United States will not tolerate
,” Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson thundered in a statement.
For Shahed drone production, sanctions target Chinese companies in Hong Kong.
They are accused of having supplied components to companies and people already targeted by American sanctions.
The sanctions also target a Chinese company suspected of belonging to the Revolutionary Guards and accused of having sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian raw materials on behalf of the China Oil and Petroleum Company group.
These sanctions result in the freezing of all assets held, directly and indirectly, in the United States by the persons and companies concerned as well as the prohibition of any company or person based in the United States from carrying out financial transactions with these persons. or entities.