The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has added 4 people and 12 entities to its counter-terrorism sanctions list under EO 13224 – press release. They are said to be part of Iran’s “shadow banking” network, which means they are accused of coordinating illicit fund transfers, including from the sale of Iranian oil, for the benefit of Iran’s armed forces. This is the second set of US sanctions targeting Iran’s shadow bank network since US President Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 in February 2025– see our US-Iran pages for more updates.

The 4 UAE-based people are:

Arash Estaki Alivand and Alireza Derakhshan, who are said to have used front companies to facilitate the purchase of over $100 million worth of cryptocurrency for oil sales for the Iranian government, including the US-sanctioned Al-Qatirji Company.

Vahid Derakhshan and Leila Karimi, who are said to have used front companies to purchase products on behalf of the IRGC and the Iranian military

The US also sanctioned 12 companies based in Hong Kong and the UAE because of links to the above people and to Ramin Jalalian, whom the US sanctioned in June 2024.