The U.S. Department of the Treasury took unprecedented action against the A7 Network, a shadow banking network with ties to Russia used by the Iranian regime to evade sanctions, as part of Operation Economic Outcast.
Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed a rule that would prohibit transmittals of funds regarding transactions involving the A7 Network's Sub-Agents, and issued an Alert to help financial institutions detect and report suspicious activity related to the network. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the A7 Network as a significant transnational criminal organization.
"Treasury is dismantling the financial infrastructure that allows Iran and other adversaries to evade sanctions, move illicit funds, and undermine the integrity of the global financial system," said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. "Today's action targeting A7 continues Treasury's unprecedented efforts to isolate Iran and its financial enablers and sends a clear message that if you facilitate illicit finance for America's adversaries, you will lose access to the U.S. financial system."
The A7 Network was created and backed by U.S.-sanctioned persons to evade sanctions, and has developed a global web of Sub-Agents — companies purpose-built to disguise payments linked to sanctioned sectors and persons as ordinary commercial activity. The network has been leveraged by Iran, including Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The action builds on the August 14, 2025 designation of several A7 Network entities, such as A7 LLC and Old Vector LLC.
By its own account, as of January 2026, the A7 Network claimed to process more than 2,000 transactions a day with a total transaction volume of more than 7.5 trillion rubles, the U.S. dollar equivalent of $91.5 billion, or approximately 13 percent of the Russian Federation's 2025 foreign trade transactions. FinCEN's investigation identified that the network's Sub-Agents processed more than $17 billion between January 2025 and June 2026, aggregated globally.
The notice of proposed rulemaking, issued pursuant to section 9714(a) of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act, is not limited to Russian sanctions evasion. The same Sub-Agents that enable Russian illicit finance created pathways for other actors, including the Central Bank of Iran, the IRGC, and Iran-backed terrorist organizations, as well as cybercriminals such as ransomware and procurement actors.
The A7 Network is led by Ilan Mironovich Shor, a sanctioned and convicted criminal fraudster. It has been linked to Nobitex, Iran's largest digital asset exchange, and has facilitated transactions related to North Korean hacks of cryptocurrency exchanges. The public comment period will close 30 days after the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register.