The US government imposed economic sanctions Friday on a Dubai-based Iranian financier accused of embezzling billions of dollars in public funding to enrich "regime elites" in Tehran.
Iranian national Ali Ansari is described in a US Treasury statement as a "key financier" for the Islamic republic's supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.
According to the Treasury, "Ansari has effectively institutionalized large‑scale embezzlement within the Iranian regime, diverting publicly funded wealth into an extensive overseas portfolio of real estate and commercial holdings."
The scheme served "to enrich himself, regime elites," including those in the supreme leader's office and Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards.
Ansari embezzled the Iranian people's money and invested it into real estate and commercial properties in Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Britain, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates and other nations, according to the Treasury, the department which administers US economic sanctions.
It said the global network of shell companies operated under a holding company established in 2011 in the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
"Although held in Ansari's name, many of these financial interests are ultimately held for the financial benefit of Mojtaba Khamenei, his family, and other Iranian elites in the regime," said the Treasury.
Punitive measures by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), such as the ones against Ansari, usually result in the freezing of any assets held in the United States.
They also prohibit American companies and citizens from doing business with the targeted individual, or risk penalties themselves.
Mojtaba Khamenei became Iran's supreme leader after his father, Ali Khamenei, was killed on the first day of the Middle East war, which was triggered on February 28 by US and Israeli airstrikes.
OFAC also took action against three Iran-based currency exchange houses, which it accuses of moving billions of dollars per year for sanctioned Iranian banks through layers of shell companies.
The exchange houses are Mohammad Darbani and Partners, Lavasani and Partners, and Mohsen Khandan and Partners.
"By targeting these networks, the United States is directly disrupting the regime's ability to access foreign currency and conduct international financial activity," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a separate statement.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington have spiked as US-Iran clashes resumed this week and US President Donald Trump asserted that the ceasefire between the longtime foes was over.
Pigott said Washington will continue to pursue sanctions against individuals and entities that facilitate "illicit Iranian commerce," and that the Trump administration "will not relent until the Iranian regime ends its destabilizing behavior and its exploitation of the Iranian people."
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