The U.S. Treasury under Secretary Janet Yellen (L) imposed sanctions against three people and four entities accused of being a procurement network for Iran. File Photo by Michael Reynolds/UPI
Feb. 14 (UPI) — The Biden administration has blacklisted three people and four companies that the United States accuses of procuring American goods and technology for Iran and the Middle Eastern country’s U.S.-designated central bank.
The sanctions were announced Wednesday by the Treasury and State Department, specifically targeting Iran-based Information Services Corporation, a subsidiary of the Central Bank of Iran, which was designated by the United States in September 2019 for funding Tehran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
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“The Central Bank of Iran has played a critical role in providing financial and technological support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and Hezbollah, both foreign terrorist organizations and key drivers of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
“Today’s action demonstrates that defying export restrictions and circumventing sanctions against Iran will result in consequences.”
Officials said ISC is the technology arm of CBI and uses front companies to acquire U.S. goods and technology, which are then forwarded on to the central bank.
Along with ISC, the United States on Wednesday sanctioned the United Arab Emirates-based Advance Banking Solution on accusations of being one of those ISC front companies. U.S. officials said it bought U.S. goods and technology from more than two dozen companies that were then transferred to CBI by lying about who the intended end users of the products were.
UAE-based Freedom Star General Trading was blacklisted for facilitating the shipment of goods from the UAE to CBI in Iran, while Turkey’s Ted Teknoloji Gelistirme Hizmetleri Sanayi Ticaret Anonim was hit as it serves as the ISC’s in-country representative and worked as part of the procurement network.
Individuals sanctioned were ISC Chief Executive Officer Seyed Abotaleb Najafi, 67, Freedom Star President Mohammad Reza Khademi, 57, and ISC employee Pouria Mirdamadi, 44.
Sanctions block those designated from acquiring U.S. property and accessing the U.S. financial market while barring Americans from doing business with them.
It also recently developed the Central Bank Digital
the Turkey-based United Arab Emeritus-based Advance Banking Solution, Freedom Star General Trading
The United States sanctioned CBI in September of 2019 over funding Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Crops.
