WASHINGTON—The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a new alert warning financial institutions that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is increasingly using front companies, financial facilitators and digital-asset infrastructure—including stablecoins—to evade sanctions, launder funds and support terrorist and weapons procurement activities.
In the alert issued May 11, FinCEN said recent Bank Secrecy Act data and law-enforcement analysis show the IRGC relies on complex “shadow banking” networks involving exchange houses, shell companies, shipping firms and digital asset service providers operating across multiple jurisdictions to disguise beneficial ownership and move illicit proceeds through the international financial system. The agency said Iranian actors increasingly are using stablecoins because of their liquidity, settlement speed and relative price stability.
FinCEN said the networks often involve recently created companies with limited online presence, opaque ownership structures and large cross-border transactions flowing through jurisdictions including Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, China and Singapore. The alert also warned that some Iranian actors have created digital-asset exchange front companies and used blockchain infrastructure, peer-to-peer exchangers and foreign money-services businesses to move funds while attempting to avoid detection.
The agency urged banks, credit unions and other financial institutions to increase scrutiny of transactions tied to Iranian oil shipping, stablecoin activity, digital asset exchanges and companies operating in high-risk jurisdictions. FinCEN requested institutions referencing suspicious activity related to the alert use the term “FIN-2026-Alert002” in SAR filings and noted the warning is part of the Trump Administration’s broader “maximum pressure” campaign targeting Iran’s financial networks and sanctions-evasion activity.