The US on Monday (November 20th) imposed sanctions on a network of individuals and companies accused of forging money to help Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), AFP reported.
The sanctions targeted four companies and two individuals involved in printing counterfeit Yemeni currency to benefit Iran, including Iranian national Reza Heidari and Mahmoud Seif, whose nationality was not given, according to a statement.
The US Treasury said the pair allegedly used the companies -- ForEnt Technik and Printing Trading Center in Frankfurt, and Rayan Printing and Tejarat Almas Mobin Holding in Tehran -- to evade European export restrictions while procuring equipment used to print fake Yemeni currency potentially worth hundreds of millions of US dollars.
This benefitted the IRGC's external operations arm, which has been subject to US sanctions since 2007, it said.
"This scheme exposes the deep levels of deception the IRGC-Quds Force is willing to employ against companies in Europe, governments in the Gulf, and the rest of the world to support its destabilizing activities," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
"Counterfeiting strikes at the heart of the international financial system, and the fact that elements of the government of Iran are involved in this behaviour is completely unacceptable," he said.
The sanctions effectively freeze the individuals and companies out of much of the global banking system and bar financial institutions subject to US law from doing business with them.
