New US sanctions on Revolutionary Guard's oil transportation network
The US treasury on Wednesday added a transportation network that belongs to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the list of sanctions. The network consists of companies, ships, and individuals that have transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria and other illicit groups.
The names of Rostam Ghasemi, Iran’s former minister of oil, and his son Morteza Ghasemi are among the sanctioned individuals on the list. The sanctions also include subsidiary companies of a company located in India named Mahdi Group, which benefits from the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya1.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has frozen all the assets of these institutions and individuals within the United States and has forbidden American citizens and companies from dealing with them.
According to the US Treasury Department, the Quds Force (the International arm of the IRGC) and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have made $750 million in profits since the spring of this year just by delivering oil and oil products to Syria.
Steve Mnuchin, the US Secretary of Treasury said: “This action by the Treasury Department will send a clear signal that anyone who buys oil from Iran is directly supporting Iranian military and its terrorist arm, the Quds Force.”
The US government is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information that can help disrupt the financial apparatus of Iran’s IRGC.