Sanctions delivered over Iran oil sales

President Donald Trump’s administration sanctioned an Iranian company and three Russian companies, including a subsidiary of the Russian Energy Ministry, in an effort to choke off oil sales to the regime of Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

The companies help to illicitly ship oil from Iran to Assad’s government, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement Tuesday announcing the sanctions. The U.S. sanctioned a Russian and a Syrian involved in two of the Russian companies, identified as Promsyrioimport, the Energy Ministry subsidiary, and Global Vision Group, as well as two executives at the Central Bank of Iran that it said were involved in the scheme.

“Today we are acting against a complex scheme Iran and Russia have used to bolster the Assad regime and generate funds for Iranian malign activity,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement. “Central Bank of Iran officials continue to exploit the international financial system, and in this case even used a company whose name suggests a trade in humanitarian goods as a tool to facilitate financial transfers supporting this oil scheme.”

An Iranian company called Tadbir Kish Medical and Pharmaceutical Co. was used as a cutout for the country’s central bank to make payments to Russia-based Mir Business Bank, according to the Treasury Department statement. The money was then routed to Global Vision Group and then to Promsyrioimport, which paid for Iranian oil to be exported to Syria, the Treasury Department alleges.

The Treasury Department also issued an advisory warning shippers against participating in oil deliveries to Assad’s regime. Ships involved in the scheme routinely turn off their tracking devices to conceal their participation, senior administration officials said in a briefing for reporters.

Promsyrioimport said on its website that its focus is the “implementation of state energy policy.” The association helped with deliveries of Iranian oil, starting last year. Russia has defended its trade with Iran and Syria as complying with United Nations sanctions.

Mohammad Amer Alchwiki, who controls Global Vision Group, according to the Treasury Department, also is involved in a separate scheme to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to “Iranian proxies” in the Mideast, the U.S. said. He coordinated the transfers with a Hezbollah official who is already under U.S. sanction, Muhammad Qasir, the department said in its statement.

In addition to Alchwiki, the Treasury Department sanctioned Andrey Dogaev, identified as first deputy director of Promsyrioimport; Rasul Sajjad, identified as the international department director at the Central Bank of Iran, and Hossein Yaghoobi, vice governor for international affairs at the bank; and Muhammad Qasim al-Bazzal, identified as a Hezbollah member and associate of Qasir.