The United States announced a new round of Iran-related sanctions on Friday, citing Iran’s renewed attacks on international shipping vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Treasury Department.
Among those targeted is Ali Ansari, an Iranian banker and businessman who operates out of Dubai. Ansari had previously faced sanctions from Britain for his alleged role in providing financial support to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, along with other individuals and entities named in the action.
The Treasury Department described Ansari as a “key financier” for Iran’s new leader Mojtaba Khamenei. Officials allege he redirected publicly funded wealth into a sprawling international portfolio of real estate and commercial assets, enriching himself, government elites, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also known as the IRGC.
Additionally, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, took aim at major Iranian exchange houses. Officials say those operations moved billions of dollars each year on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks, hiding the activity behind multiple layers of shell companies to conceal the government’s illicit financial dealings.
The announcement came on a relatively calm day following a week of renewed hostilities. During that period, three commercial tankers belonging to Qatar and Saudi Arabia came under Iranian fire. The attacks triggered U.S. strikes on Iranian targets, which in turn prompted Iran to launch retaliatory strikes against U.S. military installations in Gulf states.
