WASHINGTON — US authorities designated the A7 financial network as a “significant transnational criminal organization” in the latest step by Western authorities to try and choke the sprawling Kremlin-backed scheme to evade sanctions.
The move, announced by the US Treasury Department on October 1, comes as A7 — backed by a fugitive Moldovan oligarch and a major Russian Defense Ministry-linked bank — continues to grow, by some expert accounts, exponentially.
Treasury said the A7 network of companies, known as subagents, disguised payments involving sanctioned entities as legitimate commercial transactions, helping Russian and Iranian entities move money outside traditional banking channels, including to facilitate Iranian oil sales and weapons procurement.
“Treasury is dismantling the financial infrastructure that allows Iran and other adversaries to evade sanctions, move illicit funds, and undermine the integrity of the global financial system,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
The measures, which also include sanctions targeting Iran’s automotive, rail, manufacturing, and metals sectors, are part of the Trump administration’s broader Operation Economic Outcast campaign to cut off Tehran’s access to international finance and revenue.
“Today’s action targeting A7 continues Treasury’s unprecedented efforts to isolate Iran and its financial enablers,” Bessent added.
FinCEN, the Treasury bureau responsible for combating illicit finance, said A7’s subagents processed more than $17 billion between January 2025 and June 2026.
A7 denied any links to Iran in a statement on October 2, saying it “categorically rejects any allegations that it has worked with Iran or terrorist organizations” and that it was providing “uninterrupted payment settlements for the Russian market, which has been subjected to unlawful restrictive measures.”
A7 claimed that as of January it was processing more than 2,000 transactions a day, with a total volume exceeding 7.5 trillion rubles, or about $91.5 billion, according to Treasury.
The network also provided channels for Iranian entities, including the Central Bank of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, to move funds internationally.
Treasury said A7-linked companies were involved in about $140 million in Iranian sanctions-evasion transactions and about $1.6 million in weapons procurement. It also linked the network to Nobitex, Iran’s largest digital-asset exchange.
Several A7 entities were already sanctioned by Washington in August 2025.
FinCEN proposed a rule that would prohibit the transmission of funds involving A7’s subagents and issued an alert to help financial institutions identify suspicious transactions connected to the network.
Senior US officials, speaking to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity, said the proposed rule would send a strong signal to banks in China, the United Arab Emirates, and Kazakhstan that depend on access to US correspondent banking.
The officials said mapping A7’s hundreds of intermediaries would give banks information to monitor, block, and report transactions.
RFE/RL has previously reported on A7’s activities, including its operations in Kyrgyzstan. RFE/RL investigations have also examined the roles of Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor and Russia’s Promsvyazbank in the network, as well as A7’s ruble-backed cryptocurrency.
Officials compared the move targeting rail transit to Washington’s earlier targeting of Iran’s aviation sector, saying foreign rail operators, terminals, logistics companies, and financial institutions supporting Iranian rail activity could face sanctions.
“If Turkmenistan stops taking Iranian cars at Sarakhs, the China route is closed,” one senior US official said, referring to the city on the Iran-Turkmenistan border that is a major transit hub.
Treasury also targeted Iran’s two main automotive companies and foreign suppliers of auto parts in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Turkey. Two China-based steel companies were among those sanctioned in the metals sector.
Maria Shagina, a senior fellow for geoeconomics and strategy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said A7’s designation was notable because the network was built in Russia but was being targeted as part of Washington’s campaign against Iran.
“It’s quite telling that the US is designating a major evasion network born and bred from Russia via the Iran connection,” Shagina told RFE/RL.
She said the decision to target A7’s wider network, rather than only the main operation, could disrupt financial links in third countries.
Discussion about this post