A man walks past a banner featuring portraits of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (on the right), the deceased supreme leader of Iran, and his son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, displayed on a street in Tehran on April 15, 2026. (Credit: AFP)
The U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday it had launched "Economic Fury," an operation involving new sanctions targeting the Iranian regime and Hezbollah, amid uncertainty over the resumption of negotiations between the United States and Iran.
These sanctions specifically target financing networks through the laundering of money from "smuggled" oil linked to the son of Ali Shamkhani, a senior Iranian security official, and gold from Venezuela.
In a statement, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced it had first "increased pressure on the illicit infrastructure for Iranian oil transport by sanctioning more than two dozen individuals, entities and vessels operating within the network of Iranian oil shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of former senior Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani." Shamkhani had already been sanctioned by the Treasury in July 2025, the Treasury recalled.
"The Treasury is acting with resolve by targeting regime elites like the Shamkhani family, who seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the Iranian people," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. According to the Treasury, the aim of the sanctions is "to modify behaviors, not just to punish."
On Feb. 28, the United States and Israel launched massive strikes against Iran, triggering a response by the mullahs' regime on Israel and Gulf countries. And on March 2, Hezbollah brought Lebanon into the regional war by firing rockets at Israel.
Hezbollah-linked money laundering network
Following a joint investigation with U.S. homeland security services, OFAC also said it had targeted a network of Iranian oil and gold smuggling serving the Iranian regime and Hezbollah. In this context, it sanctioned Sayed Naiemaei Badreddine Moussavi, "an Iranian national and Hezbollah financier," as well as three companies allegedly involved in a complex money laundering scheme.
"This network was based on the sale of Iranian oil in exchange for Venezuelan gold to benefit Hezbollah and the al-Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps." Moussavi is said to have cooperated within this network with members of Nicolás Maduro’s former regime in Venezuela, the Treasury said, citing "direct ties" to the ex-dictator currently in U.S. custody after his capture on Jan. 3, 2026.
The Iranian is believed to have "taken over some duties" from Alex Saab, a Lebanese-Colombian businessman already sanctioned by Washington. The Treasury notes that for more than five years, Moussavi "developed a global network of illicit actors to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil for the benefit of Hezbollah and the Iranian regime. He sent Iranian oil to Venezuela in exchange for gold, which was then sent back to Iran for the al-Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards as part of a Hezbollah financing channel," the statement continued. The gold was also sent to "Hezbollah financier Ali Kassir and then smuggled to Turkey to be sold." He is also said to have coordinated his operations with a drug trafficker and a maritime operator to secretly bring Iranian oil into Venezuela.
The Treasury also identifies in this network a series of shell companies in various countries, including the United Arab Emirates, India, and the Marshall Islands, and believes that "ghost" oil tankers were used to transport the hydrocarbons.
These U.S. sanctions include "the freezing of assets in the United States, the prohibition of any transactions with U.S. entities, and extension to businesses that are 50% or more owned by sanctioned persons." Financial institutions also risk secondary sanctions if they cooperate with these networks.
