US Treasury Sanctions Eight Canadian Money-Exchange Firms Over Iran Ties

The United States Treasury Department has imposed financial sanctions on eight Canadian money-services companies that, according to the department, have done business with sanctioned Iranian entities.

According to a Treasury statement issued on Friday, the companies facilitated the exchange of Iranian rials and other currencies for digital assets, enabling international transactions. The sanctions serve to isolate the firms from the dollar-based financial system and are the latest in a series of Treasury moves against companies operating outside the United States. Designations of this kind block any property the named firms hold under US jurisdiction and bar US persons from transacting with them, which is why offshore money-services businesses can still lose access to dollar clearing when their flows touch American banks.

Transactions linked to sanctioned exchanges and IRGC addresses

The Treasury said the businesses facilitated transactions with sanctioned Iranian digital asset exchanges, as well as with digital asset addresses associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The action lands in a sector Treasury already treats as carrying the same sanctions obligations as traditional finance: under OFAC guidance for the virtual currency industry, exchanges and service providers are expected to screen their counterparties, including digital wallet addresses associated with blocked persons.

"Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial facilitators that provide sanctions evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies," said US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. "Treasury will pursue and disrupt the Iranian regime's financial channels anywhere in the world."

Continuation of an escalating campaign

Friday's designations are a continuation of the Treasury Department's campaign to "disrupt the regime's exploitation of digital assets to fund terrorism, human rights abuses, and attacks on US personnel and allies," according to the statement.

The department added that the actions were coordinated with FINTRAC, Canada's financial intelligence unit. It also noted that some of the entities subject to this action have changed their names and addresses to evade detection — a rebranding tactic that illustrates the identification challenge Treasury faces as enforcement extends to conversion points abroad. With FINTRAC now on record as a coordination partner, whether Canadian authorities take complementary steps of their own is one thread to watch as the campaign moves beyond US borders.

Cointelegraph reported in August that the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, was targeting cryptocurrency exchanges that facilitated the transfer of funds to Iran's IRGC. Speaking at the time, Bessent said the United States planned to "increase the economic pressure" on Iran, focusing on financial networks that fund the country's regime "in dollars, rials, or crypto."

$20 million reward for information on Iran's nuclear program

In a separate action announced on Friday, the US Rewards for Justice program offered as much as $20 million and possible relocation for information about Iran's nuclear program, including its facilities, equipment, and personnel.

The statement said Iran's lack of compliance with the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, on safeguards has led to the agency's loss of "continuity of knowledge" regarding Iran's production of enriched uranium and components such as centrifuges. Landing on the same day as the designations, the reward offer underscored the breadth of Friday's actions, which paired financial enforcement with an intelligence-gathering push against Iran-linked activity.