The United States has imposed sanctions on eight Canadian currency-exchange businesses accused of helping Iranian entities circumvent financial sanctions.
The US Department of the Treasury announced the measures on Friday as part of what it calls “Operation Economic Outcast“.
The Treasury said some of the businesses also laundered their proceeds by converting Iranian rials and other currencies into digital assets such as cryptocurrency, adding that some of the businesses helped an alleged head 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,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
According to the Treasury, the businesses are based in Ontario and British Columbia, and they include Million Exchange, Amin Exchange and Cryptoyal.
The sanctions effectively cut the firms off from the US dollar-based financial system, freezing any assets they hold in the US and barring them from transactions with American people or entities.
Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) issued a statement shortly after the US Treasury’s announcement, saying that it worked with the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to impose the sanctions against the money service businesses.
“FINTRAC works regularly with foreign financial intelligence units to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions evasion,” the statement said on Friday. “Through bilateral agreements, the Centre is able to disclose intelligence to financial intelligence units worldwide.”
In a separate statement on Friday, the US Treasury said FinCEN, its anti-money laundering unit, issued an order targeting the money exchanger MEXC Global.
FinCEN said the order prevents US financial institutions from processing fund transfers involving Seychelles-incorporated MEXC Global, which it says has facilitated at least $16bn in illicit transactions linked to Iran, North Korea and Russia, as well as transactions with other sanctioned actors.
More pressure on Tehran
According to the US Treasury, its sanctions campaign aims to “sever the economic lifelines that sustain the Iranian regime” and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which Canada also lists as a terrorist organisation.
On Wednesday, the US Treasury sanctioned a network in India and Turkiye that it accuses of helping Iran evade restrictions on its oil exports and airlines. The network is run by Suniel Kumar Sharma and his wife, Jaspreet Preeti Shahid, who are based in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh, the US Treasury said.
The US claimed last week that the campaign had pushed Iran’s rial to new lows and driven inflation to about 90 percent.
Below is a list of the identified businesses in Canada:
- Diverse Trade Inc, doing business as Million Exchange in Ontario
- 1380079 BC Limited, doing business as Amin Exchange in British Columbia
- Top PC Technician Inc, operating in Ontario
- NIA Nations Currency Ltd, based in British Columbia
- 2397639 Ontario Ltd, doing business as Farah Exchange
- CCC Inc in Ontario
- B Galaxy Inc, doing business as Cryptoyal, from the same Ontario location as CCC Inc
- Darvish Exchange in Ontario
