US sanctions Turkish bank to cut Iran's financial lifelines

The United States on Friday sanctioned Turkey’s Golden Global Bank and two subsidiaries over alleged financial dealings with Iran, escalating a campaign targeting foreign institutions accused of helping Tehran move money around sanctions. The Treasury Department said Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi and its asset-management and leasing subsidiaries had facilitated tens of millions of dollars in transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force and provided Iranian institutions with access to international banking channels.
The action was taken under Operation Economic Outcast, a campaign launched on August 24 to target financial networks and foreign institutions that Washington says help sustain the Islamic Republic’s economy and circumvent sanctions. Treasury alleged that the Istanbul-based bank was established to help Iran’s shadow-banking network transfer oil revenues from China to Turkey, where money exchangers could convert the proceeds into cash and gold. It also accused Golden Global of knowingly offering correspondent banking services that enabled transactions through accounts controlled by the IRGC-QF and its proxies.
Golden Global rejected the allegations, saying it had complied with domestic and international banking and compliance requirements and had no direct or indirect dealings with the individuals and entities named in the US sanctions decision. The bank said it would pursue its legal rights over what it called unfounded allegations.
According to Iran International report, more than 60 entities, individuals and vessels were designated in the first round by the US but among all the institutions Bessent named, one stood out: Bank Melli, one of the Iranian state's largest banks, was the only one whose every foreign branch, he said, "must be shuttered and dark." The bank owned by the Iranian state is still open in London, operating on a temporary permission from the British Treasury that expires on October 22. Renewing it, or letting it lapse, is Britain's answer to Washington's campaign to shut Iran's banks for good, report said. Britain has made a narrower accusation. It designated Bank Melli's London subsidiary under its Iran nuclear sanctions regime, and nothing in the bank's UK filings alleges money laundering. Two governments reached the same bank by different legal routes.