Washington, The Biden administration is imposing sanctions on a prominent Turkish businessman for violations of U.S. restrictions on the sales of Iranian oil, reports AP.
The Treasury Department announced Thursday it was penalizing Sitki Ayan and a number of companies he and his family and associates control for facilitating the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars of Iranian oil for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Ayan and his firms have also laundered the proceeds of those sales for both the Guard and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, both of which are designated as “foreign terrorist organizations” by the U.S., Treasury said.
The sanctions include a freeze on any assets Ayan or the targeted companies may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing any business with them.
“Ayan’s companies have established international sales contracts for Iranian oil with foreign purchasers, arranged shipments of oil, and helped launder the proceeds, obscuring the oil’s Iranian origin and the (Guard’s) interest in the sales,” Treasury said in a statement.
Source: Bahrain News Agency