Financial Times: The Islamic Republic has used two major British banks to evade sanctions

The Financial Times reported on Sunday that the Islamic Republic has exploited two major banks in Britain for covert money transfer operations worldwide as part of a broad network to evade sanctions, supported by Iranian intelligence agencies. According to documents obtained by the British newspaper, Lloyds and Santander financial institutions allocated several cover accounts to British companies secretly owned by a sanctioned petrochemical trading company based in London. The report adds that the mentioned petrochemical trading company is part of a network that the United States accuses of raising hundreds of millions of dollars for the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and collaborating with Russian intelligence agencies to finance proxy militias linked to the Islamic Republic. The Financial Times states that this covert money transfer has occurred while the petrochemical trading company and its British cover company, PCC UK, have been under U.S. sanctions since November 2018. The report indicates that the Islamic Republic has misused Lloyds and Santander financial institutions by designing complex structures to evade sanctions and conceal ownership. Revelations about the Islamic Republic's sanction evasion operations in the heart of London came after the British Royal Air Force joined U.S. airstrikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. This week, Britain and the United States imposed new information sanctions on what they termed a 'transnational terror network' targeting activists and opponents, including residents of Britain. According to the UK Companies House, the company Pisco UK is entirely owned by a British citizen named 'Abdollah Siawash Fahimi.' However, internal documents, some of which were leaked online by the Iranian opposition website WikiIran, show that Pisco is fully controlled by the British cover company PCC UK, and Fahimi manages it under a fiduciary contract. Fahimi has used the petrochemical trading company's email address to communicate with officials in Tehran. According to UK corporate records, he was the director of the British cover company PCC UK from April 2021 to February 2022. Previously, the British Foreign Secretary revealed in an interview with the British newspaper 'Sunday Times' that he had an open conversation with the Iranian Foreign Minister, stating that 'we must send the clearest possible message to Iran to let them know that what they are doing through proxies is unacceptable.' David Cameron, in an interview published in the Sunday Times on February 4, stated, 'I had a very strong conversation with Amir-Abdollahian and told him that these proxies are yours; you cannot absolve yourself of responsibility for them. You can claim they have some independence, but you created them, supported them, financed them, armed them, and ultimately you will be held accountable for what they do.' The U.S. Department of Justice has taken action against the Islamic Republic's oil smuggling network and financing of the IRGC. A group of American lawmakers has called for stricter enforcement of oil sanctions against the Iranian government. A senior U.S. Treasury official traveled to the Middle East to combat the Islamic Republic's 'sanction evasion.' The U.S. has sanctioned a network of suppliers for the Islamic Republic's 'missile and drone' program. A member of the Chamber of Commerce recounted how the U.S. is closing the route for sanction evasion in Iraq. A German bank was banned from dealing with the Islamic Republic due to 'potential money laundering.' The U.S. Department of Justice sentenced an Iranian-American to 41 months in prison for 'sanction evasion.'