Treasury Sanctions 8 Canadian Firms Over Alleged Iran Crypto Links
OFAC designated eight Ontario and B.C. money services businesses under E.O. 13902. Treasury says they swapped rials and other cash into digital assets for Iran-linked flows.
The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control on Friday designated eight Canadian money services businesses that it says help move value for Iran by exchanging Iranian rials and other currencies for digital assets, according to a Treasury press release and the matching OFAC SDN update.
U.S. persons generally may not deal with the firms. Property they hold in the United States is blocked. The action sits under Executive Order 13902, which targets Iran's digital-asset sector among other parts of its economy.
What OFAC says the firms did
Treasury alleges the companies, based in Ontario and British Columbia, gave sanctioned Iranian actors a channel to move money abroad. Named firms include Diverse Trade Inc. (Million Exchange), Amin Exchange entities, NIA Nations Currency Ltd., Farah Exchange, CCC Inc., B Galaxy Inc. (Cryptoyal) and Darvish Exchange. OFAC says addresses tied to several of them transacted with sanctioned Iranian exchanges such as Nobitex, Wallex, Ramzinex, Bitpin and Shelbit, and in some cases with addresses linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
A money services business in this context is a firm that changes cash or currencies and, here, often converts those funds into crypto for cross-border transfer. OFAC's list update posts specific TRON addresses for several of the designated entities.
Treasury also says some of the firms handled drug proceeds for Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder who was apprehended in January 2026 and who, OFAC alleges, used Canadian exchangers to turn bulk cash into digital assets sent abroad. CBC News reported Friday that it contacted Wedding's lawyer for comment. Public responses from the eight firms were not posted on their sites by midday Saturday ET.
The designations continue Operation Economic Outcast, launched in August, and follow earlier OFAC actions against Iranian exchanges including Nobitex and Shelbit. FinCEN and Canada's FINTRAC coordinated on the package, Treasury said.
Friday's OFAC update lists the eight entities and their TRON addresses on the SDN List. The next check for desks screening counterparties is whether those wallets appear in weekend settlement flows.
Sources: U.S. Treasury · OFAC · CBC News
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