The US Treasury has designated Kremlin-backed fintech company A7 a transnational criminal organisation, accusing it of enabling Iran and its proxy groups to evade western sanctions. The measures announced on Thursday would freeze any assets held by the cross-border payments company in the US and prohibit Americans from doing business with A7 or any subagents acting on its behalf.
A7 was established by sanctioned Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor with support from Promsvyazbank, a state-owned Russian bank with close links to the Kremlin’s defence industry, which is also subject to US sanctions. The Kremlin has touted A7 as an alternative to the western payments system as Russia’s economy has been isolated by western sanctions imposed in the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
An FT investigation last month revealed how A7 relied on a vast document-forgery operation to move billions of dollars through the international finance system, using an extensive network of front companies. Hundreds of thousands of internal files the FT obtained detailed how the company was able to funnel more than $6.9bn through the international banking system, including through lenders such as Standard Chartered and Citigroup. The FT found evidence of 100 A7 front companies making payments between late 2024 and August 2025, while documents mention at least a further 100 such groups.
The Treasury said: “These subagents form a core layer of the A7 network’s operational architecture as a purpose-built sanctions evasion and money laundering mechanism connected to Russian illicit finance and exploited by other illicit finance threat actors, including Iran.” At a September conference attended by Vladimir Putin, Shor claimed the platform processed Rbs7.5tn ($91.5bn) in the preceding 10 months. As part of Thursday’s package, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed a rule to bar fund transmittals involving A7’s subagents. The EU and UK imposed sanctions on A7 last year, while the US framed the move as part of ‘Operation Economic Outcast’ to isolate Iran’s economy.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing