Treasury threatens to cut off $1.8B in Iranian shadow banking networks through UAE

WASHINGTON —Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday threatened to cut off $1.8 billion in Iranian shadow banking being processed through the United Arab Emirates as part of Operation Economic Outcast.The Treasury is targeting Banque Misr UAE, which it estimates processed about $1.8 billion between January 2024 and June 2026 for 103 companies that are potentially part of Iranian shadow banking networks.The five branches of the targeted bank operating in the UAE were listed in a proposed Treasury rule on Friday “as a Financial Institution Operating Outside of the United States of Primary Money Laundering Concern,” meaning within 30 days the department could boot it from the US financial system.Each branch is part of Egypt’s second-largest bank, Banque Misr.Its customers include companies that front for Iran’s Ministry of Defense and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to evade US sanctions, as well as to launder money on behalf of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Treasury claimed.Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, previously identified as much as $9 billion related to possible Iranian shadow banking activities passing through US financial institutions in 2024 alone.“Treasury promised to sever every economic lifeline Tehran has left and finally end the threat of the Iranian regime,” Bessent said in a statement. “We also warned that Iran’s enablers cannot continue to enjoy access to the U.S.

dollar and the global financial system.Banque Misr UAE decided to find out the hard way, and today, we are taking the first step in holding it accountable for its continued, egregious support of the Iranian regime,” Bessent added.The US has taken the war with Iran to the economic level, targeting the financial lifelines that keep Tehran running. The Treasury Department is working to revoke the UAE-based bank’s access to US financial institutions, using a section of the Patriot Act that gives the government the power t...