U.S. Targets Russia-Linked ‘A7 Network’ Over Billions In Hidden Iranian Funds

The U.S. Department of the Treasury moved Thursday to shut down the A7 Network, a sprawling shadow banking operation accused of funneling tens of billions of dollars overseas for Iran and Russia.

Carried out under an initiative dubbed Operation Economic Outcast, the enforcement action combines formal sanctions with sweeping banking restrictions. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the network as a significant transnational criminal organization, freezing its U.S.-linked assets. Simultaneously, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed a rule to bar financial transfers tied to the group’s intermediary firms and issued an alert instructing banks on how to spot related transactions.

Treasury officials described the network as a coordinated financial pipeline created by sanctioned individuals and led by Ilan Mironovich Shor, a convicted fraudster who is already under U.S. sanctions. According to investigators, the group relies on dozens of third-country shell companies, known as “Sub-Agents,” to make illicit transfers look like routine commercial trade. Operators allegedly masked their locations with custom virtual private networks, created fake invoices, and falsified shipping paperwork to slip past international banking compliance checks.

“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,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “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 scale of the network’s operations is substantial. By early 2026, the A7 Network claimed it was running more than 2,000 transactions a day, totaling 7.5 trillion rubles—roughly $91.5 billion, or about 13 percent of Russia’s entire 2025 foreign trade volume. FinCEN’s own probe found that between January 2025 and June 2026, the network’s third-party agents processed over $17 billion.

Iranian Flags (Unsplash)

While deeply tied to Russian commerce, the system was heavily used by Tehran. Treasury investigators found that the Central Bank of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and affiliated militant groups like Hamas used A7 pathways to move money. In one case, a network sub-agent traded directly with Iran’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers, drawing nearly $140 million alongside a sister firm. Another branch transferred roughly $1.6 million to fund Iranian weapons purchases. The network also maintained ties to Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and handled transactions tied to North Korean digital asset thefts and ransomware crews.

The network also circulated its own ruble-backed digital currency, known as the A7A5 token, which was created by an affiliated company, Old Vector LLC, to move funds globally outside standard banking oversight.

Thursday’s crackdown builds on earlier individual designations made in August 2025 and follows a related alert issued late last month by the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency.

Under the new sanctions, any property or financial accounts belonging to the A7 Network or its majority-owned entities that fall under U.S. jurisdiction are immediately frozen. American citizens and foreign firms doing business through the U.S. financial system are barred from dealing with the group, with violators facing civil or criminal enforcement under federal sanctions laws. The public will have 30 days to comment on FinCEN’s proposed banking rules once they are formally published in the Federal Register.