The US Treasury Department sanctioned three Iranian currency exchange houses and a network of associated front companies on Friday, saying they help the Islamic Republic convert oil revenues and sustain its war effort.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said the designations target Opal Exchange, Radin Exchange and Tahayyori Guarantee Society, also known as Arz Iran Exchange, along with their owners and associates.
“Iran is the head of the snake for global terrorism, and under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is moving aggressively, through Economic Fury, to sever the Iranian military’s financial lifelines,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
“We will relentlessly target the regime’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds, and pursue anyone enabling Tehran’s attempts to evade sanctions,” he added.
The Treasury said Iranian exchange houses facilitate billions of dollars in foreign currency transactions each year and play a critical role because Tehran primarily settles its oil sales in Chinese yuan. The department said the exchange houses help convert those revenues into currencies more usable by Iran’s military, partners and proxies.
OFAC said Iran’s shadow banking networks handle tens of billions of dollars in trade annually, much of it linked to overseas oil and petrochemical sales.
The sanctioned individuals include Pedram Pirouzan, Hossein Mohammad Rezaei, Masoud Mohammad Rezaei, Nasser Ghasemi Rad and Ehsan Tahayyori.
The Treasury said Pirouzan and Ghasemi Rad used citizenship from Dominica and Saint Kitts and Nevis, respectively, to obscure their Iranian ties while setting up foreign front companies and bank accounts.
OFAC also designated a series of front companies, including entities registered in jurisdictions such as the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere, saying they helped Iranian exchange houses conduct transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of sanctioned Iranian persons.
Since February 2025, OFAC has sanctioned more than 1,000 Iran-related individuals, vessels and aircraft as part of the campaign, the Treasury said.
