Wednesday, October 22, 2008

OFAC drops the hammer on Iran-Venezuela "bank"

It has been alluded to here, before, that the Iran-Venezuela marriage of convenience opened all matter of possible avenues for troublemaking, but the specific concern that Iran would use Venezuelan front-banks to get around the sanctions regime aimed at denying nuclear technology to Iran has been more a matter for quiet side discussions...

...until now.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has just promulgated a ban on Banco Internacional de Desarrollo, C.A., of Caracas. Note this is neither of the Venezuelan banks of similar names, but an Iranian-funded entity. An Iranian exchange company, a stock brokerage, and a bank, all based in Iran also got the hammer.

1 comment:

L.Douglas Garrett said...

Here's what Counterterrorism Blog has on this item, with links to previous analysis there. Their work focuses on the Iranian bank and then looks outward at what it is connected to.