Financial authorities in the U.S. have announced “unprecedented” measures against the Russia-rooted fintech A7, accusing it of assisting Iran with sanctions evasion. The company, believed to
Financial authorities in the U.S. have announced “unprecedented” measures against the Russia-rooted fintech A7, accusing it of assisting Iran with sanctions evasion.
The company, believed to have moved billions of dollars despite Western restrictions, has been described as a shadow banking structure and designated a criminal organization.
Washington has sanctioned A7, a fintech and cryptocurrency firm implicated in facilitating Russian efforts to circumvent financial restrictions imposed over the war in Ukraine.
The platform, which enjoys Moscow’s support, has now been targeted for allegedly enabling Iran and its proxy groups to do the same, with the official announcement on Thursday stating:
“The U.S. Department of the Treasury took unprecedented action against the A7 Network, a shadow banking network with ties to Russia used by the Iranian regime to evade sanctions.”
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is proposing a rule that would ban transfers of funds linked to transactions involving A7’s subagents.
FinCEN has also issued a special alert to help financial institutions detect and report suspicious activities related to A7 and its affiliates, the press release detailed.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated the A7 network as a “significant transnational criminal organization,” the department revealed.
It also made it clear that the measures are part of Operation Economic Outcast, which was launched at U.S. President Donald Trump’s direction in late August of this year.
At the time, the initiative was presented as a campaign against the Islamic Republic and its enablers, “an economic onslaught against Iran’s financial connections around the globe.”
This week, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent emphasized his department is dismantling the financial infrastructure that allows Iran and others to evade sanctions.
The steps aim to prevent them from moving illicit funds while undermining the integrity of the global financial system, the U.S. official elaborated. He was also quoted as stating:
“Today’s action targeting A7 … sends a clear message that if you facilitate illicit finance for America’s adversaries, you will lose access to the U.S. financial system.”
The new measures would freeze any assets held by A7 in the U.S. and prohibit American citizens from doing business with it and its affiliates, the Financial Times highlighted in an article.
An investigation conducted by the business daily last month unveiled that A7 managed to move nearly $7 billion through the international banking system using forged documents and front companies.
A couple of hundred such entities were identified by the newspaper, including organizations based in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Kyrgyzstan.
According to the U.S. Treasury, these subagents “form a core layer of the A7 Network’s operational architecture,” intended for sanctions evasion and money laundering.
The mechanism, which also involves cryptocurrency methods, is connected to Russian illicit finance and utilized by other actors like Iran, the department is convinced.
It believes the Russian firm supports Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian proxies such as Hamas and that it’s linked to the designated Iranian digital asset exchange Nobitex.
A7 is majority-owned by Ilan Shor, a fugitive Moldovan oligarch with a Russian passport, and co-owned by Russia’s state-controlled PSB, formerly Promsvyazbank, both sanctioned by the West.
The company is the creator of A7A5, arguably the largest non-dollar stablecoin now issued by a Kyrgyzstan-registered entity, which is allegedly backed by deposits in Russian rubles at the PSB.
Shor recently bragged that the payments platform was processing up to 2,000 transactions daily, with a total value reaching 7.5 trillion rubles in just 10 months, or $90 billion at the current exchange rate.
A7’s transaction volume is equivalent to approximately 13% of the Russian Federation’s 2025 foreign trade transactions, the U.S. Treasury noted in its announcement on Thursday.
In Russia, A7 has often been praised as an alternative to the established payment systems controlled by the West in the face of sanctions severely limiting Russian access to global finance.
If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.
