‘Blatant corruption’: New US sanctions target Mojtaba Khamenei’s moneyman

The United States’ new Iran-related sanctions target a key financier for Iran’s new leader Mojtaba Khamenei and 13 other individuals and entities, following Tehran’s resumed attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the Treasury Department says.

The sanctions take aim at Ali Ansari, an Iranian banker and businessman based in Dubai who had previously been sanctioned by Britain for his role in financially supporting the activities of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and other entities, the Treasury says.

Treasury says Ansari had diverted publicly funded wealth into an extensive overseas portfolio of real estate and commercial holdings to enrich himself, government elites, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also targets key Iranian exchange houses and foreign “front companies” that it says moved billions of dollars annually on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks, using layers of shell companies to obscure the government’s illicit activity.

In a statement announcing the fresh sanctions, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the department would “continue using every tool at its disposal” to isolate Khamenei and other top Iranian officials from the global financial system.

Treasury says Ansari was previously the owner and director of the US-sanctioned and now-bankrupt and defunct Ayandeh Bank, which was shuttered under Iranian government orders in mid-October 2025.

It says Ansari used numerous shell companies and bank accounts across multiple jurisdictions to accumulate millions of dollars’ worth of holdings under the Saint Kitts and Nevis-based Smart Global Limited, a holding company established in 2011 that invested in real estate and commercial properties in Europe, the Gulf and other regions.

“Although held in Ansari’s name, many of these financial interests are ultimately held for the financial benefit of Mojtaba Khamenei, his family, and other Iranian elites in the regime and the IRGC who have protected Ansari from facing punishment despite his blatant corruption and the significant damage he has caused to the Iranian economy and people,” the Treasury says.

OFAC also announces measures against Iranian nationals involved with several of the exchange houses, as well as Hong Kong-based CDM Trading Limited, which it says was conducting financial transactions through those exchange houses, and Naba Alzaki Raw Materials Trading LLC, which is based in the United Arab Emirates.