U.S. Should Sanction Tehran’s Central Banker and His Lieutenants

The United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned a Central Bank of Iran (CBI) network on February 14 for smuggling sensitive American technology to Iran. The designation once again emphasizes CBI’s involvement in money laundering, terror financing, and smuggling.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13224 authorizing Treasury to designate and block entities and individuals complicit in terror financing. In 2019, under that authority, the Treasury first designated CBI for its material support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Lebanese Hezbollah. Over subsequent years, Treasury has designated several other Central Bank of Iran-connected networks and documented the bank’s malign activities in support of the IRGC and its proxies.

Treasury’s most recent action designates the Informatics Services Corporation, the technology arm of the Central Bank of Iran, as well as the company’s chief executive officer and a network of firms and persons inside and outside of Iran that helped it acquire prohibited U.S. goods and technology on CBI’s behalf. As has become common, CBI used firms in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey to cover its tracks. Both countries increasingly facilitate Tehran’s money laundering and sanctions-busting.

There are still loopholes that Washington should close to block CBI’s illicit activities. Treasury has yet to designate CBI Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin, who directs operations to launder money, evade sanctions, and finance terrorism yet still travels globally despite representing a sanctioned entity. Over the last year, Farzin has traveled not only to Turkey, Russia, Oman, and Qatar but also in May 2023 to Washington to meet with IMF officials.

To increase pressure on CBI, Washington should target 10 high-level officials whom the bank lists on its website. For example, Mohammad Aram, the bank’s deputy for foreign currency, who was recently in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and China, directs the bank’s efforts to repatriate Tehran’s export revenue. Most of Tehran’s export revenue comes from selling sanctioned goods. Other key executives include Deputy Governor Asghar Abolhassani, Director General Mohammad Talebi, Deputy for Development and Management of Resources Yekta Ashrafi, Deputy for Economic Affairs Mohammad Shirijian, Deputy for Legal Affairs Houman Ayazi, Deputy for Supervision Farshad Mohammadpour, Deputy for New Technologies Mehran Moharramian, and Deputy for International Affairs Mohsen Karimi.

CBI is the heart of Tehran’s global terror network. It uses the Iranian and global financial systems to fill the coffers of terrorist organizations across the globe. Its leadership is directly complicit and its top bureaucrats enable terror finance. It is time to close the loopholes through which the Central Bank of Iran continues to fund and enable terrorism.

Saeed Ghasseminejad is a senior advisor on Iran and financial economics at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he contributes to FDD’s Iran Program and Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP). Follow Saeed on X @SGhasseminejad. For more analysis from Saeed and FDD, please subscribe HERE. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, non-partisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.