The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned Russian financial institution VTB Bank for its continued involvement in assisting Iranian sanctions evasion. VTB is known to have over one thousand branches worldwide.
“Under Operation Economic Outcast, Treasury will continue to target and disrupt those who provide material, technological, or financial support that allows the Iranian regime to sustain its terrorist enterprise,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “Treasury will not tolerate any support to the regime and will continue to identify, expose, and isolate Iran’s enablers.”
The action against VTB is being taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13902 which targets certain sectors of the Iranian economy, including Iran’s financial sector. VTB is now among the most comprehensively sanctioned financial institutions in the world, the Treasury Department said.
Bessent promoted Operation Economic Outcast at the G20 Finance Ministers meeting earlier this month in Asheville, North Carolina, warning the Iranian regime that Treasury knew who they were working with and where their assets were being held.
There is “no safe haven,” as Bessent has said, and Treasury continues to work to shut down lifelines into Iran’s financial system.
Per today’s announcement, foreign financial institutions that continue to deal with VTB following its designation under OFAC will be exposed to even more risks of isolation.
VTB was previously sanctioned by Treasury authorities in February 2022 at the onset of Russia’s war against Ukraine. At that time, VTB was one of Russia’s two largest banks, conducting 80 percent of transactions in U.S. dollars.
Additionally this week, Treasury is meeting with global financial institutions to provide critical information and to shut down revenue streams and procurement networks tied to the Iranian regime, the IRGC, Iran’s terrorist proxies, and their enablers.
The department also emphasized the secondary sanctions exposure for those who continue to do business with the Iranian regime and made known it will accelerate the pace of U.S. enforcement measures as part of Operation Economic Outcast.
VTB opened bank offices in Iran within the past four years in order to formalize closer banking coordination with the Iranian regime and expand trade between the two countries.
At Breitbart News’ “State of the Economy” policy event last week, Bessent highlighted how President Donald Trump pushes his administration “to do more and more,” and has “made phone calls with many of the countries that still had lifelines into” the Iranian regime
Bessent noted that already both an Egyptian and a Turkish bank had faced sanctions. He warned bad actors abroad, “You know who you are, we know who you are. There’s no more forbearance. There’s no more wink and a nod. We will come for you.”