The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Dubai-based Iranian “financier” Ali Ansari, following Tehran’s resumption of attacks on international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
The US treasury department described Ansari as a “key financier” for Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and accused him of large-scale, institutionalised embezzlement within the Iranian regime.
“Today, following Iran’s resumption of attacks on international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action against Iranian financial facilitator Ali Ansari, who oversees a sprawling global network of assets benefiting Iran’s leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and other regime elites,” the Treasury Department said in an official release.
“Ansari has effectively institutionalised large-scale embezzlement within the Iranian regime, diverting publicly funded wealth into an extensive overseas portfolio of real estate and commercial holdings to enrich himself, regime elites–including notable senior figures within the Supreme Leader’s Office–and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” the statement added. — ANI