US Treasury Targets Eight Canadian Firms for Aiding Iran's Sanctions Evasion

The United States has imposed sanctions on eight Canadian currency-exchange businesses, accusing them of facilitating the circumvention of financial sanctions by Iranian entities. The U.S. Department of the Treasury unveiled these measures on Friday as part of an initiative dubbed “Operation Economic Outcast.”

According to the Treasury, some of these businesses engaged in money laundering by converting Iranian rials and other currencies into digital assets like cryptocurrency. The department also stated that some firms assisted an alleged leader of a drug trafficking ring. "Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial facilitators that provide sanctions evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies," stated U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The businesses, identified as being based in Ontario and British Columbia, include Million Exchange, Amin Exchange, and Cryptoyal. These sanctions will effectively isolate the firms from the U.S. dollar-based financial system, freezing any assets they hold within the U.S. and prohibiting them from engaging in transactions with American individuals or entities.

Following the U.S. Treasury's announcement, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) issued a statement confirming its collaboration with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in imposing these sanctions on the money service businesses. "FINTRAC works regularly with foreign financial intelligence units to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions evasion," FINTRAC stated, adding that its bilateral agreements allow it to share intelligence globally.

In a separate action on Friday, the U.S. Treasury announced that FinCEN had issued an order targeting the money exchanger MEXC Global. FinCEN indicated that this order prohibits U.S. financial institutions from processing fund transfers involving the Seychelles-incorporated MEXC Global, which it claims has handled at least $16 billion in illicit transactions linked to Iran, North Korea, and Russia, as well as other sanctioned entities.

The U.S. Treasury asserts that its sanctions campaign is designed to "sever the economic lifelines that sustain the Iranian regime" and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This action follows a recent U.S. Treasury sanction on a network in India and Turkiye accused of aiding Iran's oil export and airline sanctions evasion, reportedly operated by Suniel Kumar Sharma and Jaspreet Preeti Shahid. The U.S. has previously claimed that its sanctions have significantly devalued Iran's rial and contributed to approximately 90 percent inflation.

The identified Canadian businesses are: Diverse ‌Trade Inc (Million Exchange) in Ontario, 1380079 BC Limited (Amin Exchange) in British Columbia, Top PC Technician Inc in Ontario, NIA Nations Currency Ltd in British Columbia, 2397639 Ontario Ltd (Farah Exchange) in Ontario, CCC Inc in Ontario, B Galaxy Inc (Cryptoyal) in Ontario, and Darvish Exchange in Ontario.