A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, Jan. 20, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The United States has fired another shot in the battle to break Iran’s illicit finance machine, this time targeting a web of “shadow bankers” moving millions of dollars through Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates to fuel Tehran’s military efforts and terrorist allies.

Meanwhile, Ecuador has become the latest country to blacklist Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hamas, and Hezbollah, naming them as terrorist organizations.

On Tuesday, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated two Iranian nationals — Alireza Derakhshan and Arash Estaki Alivand — as key financial facilitators for the IRGC-Qods Force (QF) and Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL). Alongside them, more than a dozen shell companies and individuals in Hong Kong and the UAE received sanctions for laundering oil money and cryptocurrency transactions to support Iran’s weapons programs.

“Iranian entities rely on shadow banking networks to evade sanctions and move millions through the international financial system,” US Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John Hurley said in a statement. “We will continue to disrupt these key financial streams that fund Iran’s weapons programs and malign activities in the Middle East and beyond.”

The networks OFAC mapped out are intricate and deliberate, comprising a dizzying labyrinth of front companies such as Alpa Trading – FZCO in Dubai and Alpa Hong Kong Limited, coordinated by Derakhshan and his conspirators, with ties to Hezbollah’s financial operators and Syrian oil brokers. Transactions included more than $100 million in cryptocurrency sales on behalf of the Iranian government, funneled through offshore accounts and digital wallets designed to obscure their final destination into the furnaces powering the IRGC’s terror industrial complex.

This is the third time since June that OFAC has targeted Tehran’s “shadow banks.” In July, another sprawling network received sanctions for laundering billions through exchange houses and front firms. This oil sold off the books fuels Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran’s other terrorist proxies.

Sanctions freeze all property in the United States tied to individuals and firms named, forbidding US persons from doing business with them, and threatening secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions that participate. This has created a financial game of whack-a-mole, with Iran creating new financial fronts as soon as old ones get exposed and sanctioned.

Other nations have also taken action against the threats posed by the Islamic regime in Iran and its primary fist abroad, the IRGC.

On Monday, Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa signed a decree designating the IRGC, Hamas, and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, drawing from intelligence reports warning of their presence in South America and links to local criminal gangs. The decree warned the groups pose “a direct threat to public security and sovereignty.”

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar praised the decision, writing on X that “Ecuador’s courageous step sends a clear message against Iran’s terror network and strengthens global security. We call on more countries in Latin America and around the world to follow suit.”

The US has previously called for terrorist designations for the IRGC. Ecuador has joined Canada, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and most recently Paraguay and Australia in designating the IRGC.

Last month, Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador after the nation’s intelligence service uncovered the Islamic regime’s hand behind a series of arson attacks against Jewish communities in Sydney and Melbourne. Iran responded by cutting ties and denying involvement.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the crimes “extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil.” He said that they sought “to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke described the terrorist scheme as “a series of intermediaries so that people performing different actions don’t in fact know who is directing them or don’t necessarily know who is directing them.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said that “the accusation of antisemitism against Iran is ridiculous and baseless.” He added, “According to diplomatic law and in response to Australia’s action, the Islamic Republic has also reciprocally reduced the level of Australia’s diplomatic presence in Iran.”

On Tuesday, Israel struck another Iran-backed terrorist group, Yemen’s Houthis, at the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.