OFAC designates eight Canadian OTCs for facilitating transactions for Iran's regime and global criminal networks, marking a first-of-its-kind action.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned eight Canadian over-the-counter (OTC) money service businesses for facilitating financial transactions on behalf of Iran’s regime and other illicit actors. This unprecedented move highlights the role of Canadian crypto OTCs in enabling Iran’s financial networks and laundering funds for global criminal enterprises.

OFAC’s investigation revealed that these OTCs processed millions of dollars in cryptocurrency transactions tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), sanctioned Iranian exchanges, and other entities. Specifically, more than $6 million in inflows originated from sanctioned jurisdictions, with $3.7 million linked to sanctioned entities and $2.3 million connected to terrorist-financing actors, including the IRGC, Hamas, and the Houthis. Among the Iranian exchanges involved were Aban Tether Exchange, Nobitex, Ramzinex, and Wallex. The OTCs also received funds from wallets linked to sanctioned individuals such as Arash Estaki Alivand and Keyvan Fayyaz Gharen Blagh, who have ties to cyberattacks and extortion operations conducted on behalf of the IRGC.

In addition to facilitating Iranian financial activities, these OTCs were found to have supported major drug trafficking organizations. 8 million was sent to the Ryan Wedding Criminal Enterprise, a transnational drug cartel led by former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding. 5 million was transferred to other cartel-linked money laundering wallets. Wedding’s organization, which reportedly collaborated with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, used these OTCs to convert bulk cash proceeds from drug sales into stablecoins such as USDT, enabling the funds to be transferred internationally.

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