The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Thursday designated the A7 Network as a transnational criminal organization and moved to restrict its financial operations, targeting what Treasury described as a global money-laundering operation that facilitated sanctions evasion for Iran, Russia, and other U.S. adversaries.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the A7 Network, while the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an alert to help financial institutions detect the group's activity and proposed a rule to prohibit fund transfers involving the network's agents.
The A7 Network was created to evade sanctions and operates through a network of companies known as Sub-Agents designed to disguise payments linked to sanctioned sectors as ordinary commercial activity, according to Treasury. The network is led by Ilan Mironovich Shor, described as a sanctioned and convicted criminal fraudster.
By its own account as of January 2026, the A7 Network claimed to process more than 2,000 transactions daily with a total volume of more than 7.5 trillion rubles, equivalent to $91.5 billion, Treasury said. FinCEN's investigation found that A7 Sub-Agents processed more than $17 billion between January 2025 and June 2026.
The network has facilitated transactions for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iranian proxies, as well as Russian illicit finance, Treasury said. One A7 Sub-Agent transacted with entities involved in Iran's shadow fleet of tankers and front companies used to transport Iranian oil and received nearly $140 million from entities involved in Iranian sanctions evasion.
"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," said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.