U.S. Treasury sanctions eight Canadian financial companies... “Helping Iran avoid sanctions”

The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on eight Canadian financial service companies, including currency exchange and remittance companies, on charges of helping Iran evade sanctions.

According to Reuters on the 6th (local time), the U.S. Treasury announced that it had placed eight financial service companies in Canada on the list of sanctions for supporting financial transactions with Iranian entities subject to U.S. sanctions.

Those subject to sanctions included Divers Trade (Million Exchange), Para Exchange, and Darvish Exchange in Ontario and British Columbia, Canada.

With this measure, the assets held by these companies in the United States will be frozen and transactions with American individuals and companies will be prohibited. In effect, they are being kicked out of the dollar-based financial system.

“Canada should not be a safe haven for illicit financial intermediaries that help the Iranian regime and its proxies evade sanctions,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant.

Separately, the U.S. Treasury decided to block MEXC Global, a cryptocurrency exchange based in the Seychelles, from accessing the U.S. financial system.

The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) explained that MEXC Global supported at least $16 billion (approximately 22 trillion won) worth of illegal financial transactions related to sanctions evasion by Iran, North Korea, and Russia.