The treasury department sanctioned eight Canadian currency-exchange businesses on Friday over allegations that they helped Iranian entities evade financial sanctions. The measures freeze any assets the firms hold in the US and bar transactions with American people or entities.
Scott Bessent said, “Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial facilitators that provide sanctions evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies.” The US Department of the Treasury said the action was part of Operation Economic Outcast, its latest move in a wider campaign aimed at severing the economic lifelines that sustain the Iranian regime and the IRGC.
Ontario and British Columbia firms
The businesses are based in Ontario and British Columbia, and Million Exchange, Amin Exchange and Cryptoyal were among the names identified in Canada. The Treasury said some of the businesses helped sanctioned Iranian entities circumvent financial sanctions, and said some laundered proceeds by converting Iranian rials and other currencies into digital assets such as cryptocurrency.
That allegation is narrower than a general sanctions claim: the Treasury is not only saying the firms handled money, but that they moved value across currencies in a way that obscured the source and destination of the funds. The same action also tied some of the businesses to an alleged head of a drug trafficking ring, extending the case beyond Iran-linked sanctions evasion alone.
FINTRAC and FinCEN action
FINTRAC said it worked with FinCEN to impose the sanctions against the money service businesses, while FinCEN issued an order targeting MEXC Global. FinCEN said the order prevents US financial institutions from processing fund transfers involving Seychelles-incorporated MEXC Global.
FinCEN said MEXC Global has facilitated at least $16bn in illicit transactions linked to Iran, North Korea and Russia. For readers whose money moves through exchange services, the practical effect is immediate: the firms face exclusion from US-linked transactions, and any US-held assets are frozen under the Treasury action.
Broader US pressure on Iran
The Friday action followed a Wednesday Treasury step against a network in India and Turkiye that the US says helped Iran evade restrictions on its oil exports and airlines. The network is run by Suniel Kumar Sharma and Jaspreet Preeti Shahid.
The Treasury said last week that the campaign had pushed Iran's rial to new lows and driven inflation to about 90 percent. For the Canadian firms, the open question is simple: which specific eight businesses were sanctioned, and what exact transactions linked them to the Iranian entities?
