Iran’s US-sanctioned banks operating freely in Germany
Without the assistance of Iran’s banks, it is difficult to
imagine that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and it elite branch
the Quds Force would have been capable of accruing such remarkable power —
exporting the regime’s revolutionary principles, carrying out extraterritorial
operations, sponsoring and arming terror groups, and attempting to assassinate
foreign political figures and dissidents.
This is why one of the first set of sanctions the US
reimposed on Iran following its 2018 withdrawal from the nuclear deal was
linked to the regime’s banking system. The US Department of Treasury targeted
50 Iranian banks and their foreign and domestic subsidiaries with the sanctions
it announced in November 2018. This was its largest single-day action
“targeting the Iranian regime’s abuse of Iran’s banking sector to fund its
destabilizing activities.” The Treasury added that the Iranian regime had
funneled the equivalent of billions of dollars for the Quds Force through the
banking sector.
Despite this tough US stance, unfortunately many of the
sanctioned Iranian banks are still operating with impunity in Germany.
By allowing these Iranian banks to continue to do business,
Berlin appears to be providing some German firms with the ability to do
business with Iran. According to a report published last week by United Against
Nuclear Iran, “Siemens, Volkswagen and the big multinationals have pulled back
due to US sanctions, but many of Germany’s 3.5 million small and medium-sized
enterprises are still prepared to do business with Iran. And they still can.
From Hamburg in the north to Munich in the south, (these) firms can obtain
letters of credit, bank guarantees, insurance and all the other trade finance
products they need from their Iranian facilitators.”
One of the most crucial Iranian banks — and the largest bank
owned by the Tehran regime — that is still in business in Hamburg is Bank
Melli. When it comes to revenue, Melli ranks first in the country.
Bank Melli has been implicated in several major covert and
illicit activities across the globe. For example, when a US court concluded in
2017 that prosecutors could confiscate a skyscraper in Manhattan to compensate
the families of victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorist attacks including 9/11,
it was revealed that 60 percent of the building was owned by the Alavi Foundation
and 40 percent by Assa Corporation, which is controlled by and operates on
behalf of Bank Melli, according to the US government. After going through a
“massive amount of evidence,” the judge said she was “firmly convinced” that
the Alavi Foundation “takes directives from Iranian government officials, and
its day-to-day operators have been appointed by Iranian officials to ensure
conformity with the interests of the government of Iran.” The foundation has
also made donations to various institutions in the US, including Iranian
programs and universities such as Columbia in New York.
Another major Iranian bank that is still conducting business
in Hamburg is Bank Sepah. It is also owned by the Iranian regime and has been
sanctioned by the US Treasury Department due to its provision of “direct and
extensive financial services” to Iran’s key ballistic missiles procurement and
development agencies.
Another important bank in Germany is the European-Iranian
Handelsbank (EIH), which has been linked to more than a billion dollars-worth
of transactions for the IRGC, as well as Iran’s Defense Industries Organization
and Aerospace Industries Organization.
The Iranian regime has become masterful in its attempts to
chart illicit paths and exploit other nations’ financial systems. For example,
Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa in 2018 reported that the
government had detected the Iranian-linked Future Bank was operating a covert
corruption scheme in Bahrain. It was later revealed that Iran’s Bank Melli
instructed Future Bank officials on what to do when routing money through the
US in order to conceal its origins. The Iranian regime likely uses such illegal
financial activities to skirt sanctions and sponsor terrorism, proxies,
lobbyists and spies in other countries. This assists the Iranian leaders in
employing sophisticated methods such as “wire-stripping” in order to avoid
leaving any tracks behind, as well as concealing where payments and transfers
originated from or were deposited.
Germany’s authorities must put an end to the operations of
the Iranian banks that are still conducting business in the country. Allowing
Iranian-owned banks to freely operate contributes to the regime’s terror
activities and destructive behavior across the region.
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