US Treasury Sanctions Amin Exchange, 19 Tankers, 50 Firms

The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday designated Iran-based Ebrahimi and Associates Partnership Company, operating as Amin Exchange, along with its CEO Samad Nemati and owner Yousef Ebrahimi. The Office of Foreign Assets Control also added more than 50 companies, vessels and individuals to its sanctions lists and issued blocking orders for 19 tankers it identified as carrying Iranian oil and petrochemicals.

OFAC identified Amin Exchange as a conduit that processed substantial foreign-currency transactions for banks already under U.S. sanctions. The agency said the firm operated a network of front companies with links to the United Arab Emirates, Türkiye, Hong Kong and China, and added eight of those entities to the Specially Designated Nationals list. Named counterparties in the action include the National Iranian Oil Company and Triliance Petrochemical, both previously sanctioned.

The 19 vessels subject to blocking orders moved millions of barrels of crude oil, naphtha, methanol and liquefied petroleum gas since 2023, according to the Treasury. Owners and operators based in Hong Kong, the Marshall Islands and Liberia were included among the designations. The blocking orders bar U.S. persons from engaging with those ships and can limit access to international finance for the assets.

Treasury officials linked the measures to the Economic Fury campaign, a broader effort to disrupt informal financial networks and shipping used to generate revenue for Iran’s armed forces and other regime-linked entities. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned global banks to increase scrutiny of transactions that could move Iranian funds through the international financial system and noted the campaign has frozen nearly $500 million in regime-linked cryptocurrency reserves.

The department pointed to earlier actions under Economic Fury, including a $344 million freeze of Tether tokens on the Tron blockchain and efforts to press cryptocurrency exchanges over Iran-related flows.

U.S. officials described Iranian exchange houses as key nodes that convert oil and petrochemical sales into usable foreign currency, allowing Tehran to bypass formal banking channels. OFAC estimates those houses move billions of dollars in foreign currency each year and channel proceeds to units tied to security and defense.

The Treasury flagged the possibility of secondary sanctions against foreign banks, refineries and airlines that materially assist in processing Iranian oil revenue or related financial flows. Secondary measures would target non-U.S. firms that enable sanction evasion.

Treasury officials said the designations add to prior steps intended to constrain Iran’s access to international markets and finance by naming executives, front companies and shipping operators to disrupt mechanisms used to sell energy products and convert proceeds into hard currency.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned: “Iran’s shadow banking system facilitates the illicit transfer of funding for terrorist purposes.”