Treasury Sanctions Eight Canadian Money Services Businesses Enabling the Iranian Regime
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced in Washington on November 6, 2026, as part of Operation Economic Outcast, that it has designated eight money services businesses based in Canada that enable the Iranian regime, sanctioned entities associated with the regime, and other illicit actors that move assets into and out of Iran. Treasury said the companies facilitate the exchange of Iranian rials and other currencies for digital assets to enable international transactions involving Iran, and that many have facilitated transactions with sanctioned Iranian digital asset exchanges and with digital asset addresses associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
"Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial facilitators that provide sanctions evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies," said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. "Treasury will pursue and disrupt the Iranian regime's financial channels anywhere in the world." Treasury said it launched Operation Economic Outcast in August to sever the economic lifelines that sustain the Iranian regime and its IRGC, including Tehran's exploitation of cryptocurrency as a tool of choice for sanctions evasion. Today's designations follow the June 2, 2026 designations of the Iranian exchanges Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex, and the August 7, 2026 designations of Aban Tether Exchange and SHPS Shelbit (Shelbit), which operates the Shelbit Exchange.
Treasury said today's action was coordinated with the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and FINTRAC, Canada's financial intelligence unit, and was also taken in coordination with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Several of the entities designated have worked with the OFAC-sanctioned Canadian drug trafficker Ryan Wedding. Wedding has used money exchange businesses in the Vancouver and Toronto areas to launder billions of dollars in drug proceeds, using couriers to transport bulk cash to those firms, which convert the funds to digital assets to send abroad. Wedding was apprehended in January 2026, but he worked with several of the businesses designated today to transfer millions of dollars' worth of digital assets prior to being taken into U.S. custody.
The eight businesses are: Diverse Trade Inc, doing business as Million Exchange, an Ontario-based business whose associated digital asset addresses have sent the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars to addresses associated with the IRGC or other terrorism-related addresses, and which has also laundered drug proceeds, a method Wedding used through it; 1380079 BC Limited, a British Columbia-based business doing business as Amin Exchange, and its closely associated Ontario affiliate Top PC Technician Inc, whose Amin Exchange addresses received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Shelbit and which has laundered millions of dollars in drug proceeds in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, including for Wedding in Vancouver; NIA Nations Currency Ltd, a British Columbia-based business whose addresses have transacted with IRGC-associated addresses and sanctioned Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges including Nobitex, Wallex, Ramzinex, and Bitpin; 2397639 Ontario Ltd, doing business as Farah Exchange, which has conducted hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of transactions with Shelbit and Wallex, sent thousands of dollars in digital assets to terrorism-associated addresses, and millions of dollars to addresses associated with Wedding; CCC Inc and B Galaxy Inc, two Ontario companies operating in the same location, of which CCC Inc has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in digital assets from terrorism-associated addresses and B Galaxy Inc, doing business as Cryptoyal, advertises unlimited amounts of digital assets in exchange for Iranian currencies; and Darvish Exchange, an Ontario-based business that has transacted with the sanctioned Iranian exchanges Nobitex, Wallex, Aban Tether Exchange, and Shelbit.
Treasury said OFAC is designating all eight businesses pursuant to Executive Order 13902 for operating in the digital asset sector of the Iranian economy. As a result of today's action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC, and any entities owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Violations of U.S. sanctions may result in civil or criminal penalties, and OFAC may impose civil penalties on a strict liability basis. Treasury also noted that individuals who provide information about sanctions violations to FinCEN's whistleblower incentive program may be eligible for awards if the information leads to a successful enforcement action resulting in monetary penalties exceeding $1,000,000. (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury)
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国财政部长 Scott Bessent 官方肖像。美国财政部官方照片，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Official portrait of U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. U.S. Department of the Treasury photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
