Additional firms sanctioned for ties to Iran

The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday designated 11 more entities and individuals for engaging in support of missile technology programs and clandestine activities, such as cyber-attacks, of the Iranian government.    The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday designated 11 more entities and individuals for engaging in support of missile technology programs and clandestine activities, such as cyber-attacks, of the Iranian government.
   OFAC’s growing list of sanctions include two Ukrainian companies that have provided support to already sanctioned Iranian and Iraqi airlines which work with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
   “These sanctions target an Iranian company providing material support to the IRGC’s ballistic missile program, airlines that support the transport of fighters and weapons into Syria, and hackers who execute cyber-attacks on American financial institutions,” said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin in a statement.
   The property of those sanctioned entities is now blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.
   In addition, foreign financial institutions that facilitate significant transactions for, or persons that provide material or certain other support to, these designated entities and individuals risk sanctions themselves that could end their access to U.S. financing or block their property and interests in property under U.S. jurisdiction.
   The sanctioned companies include Iran-based Sadid Caran Saba Engineering Co. (SABA) for its support of Iran’s ballistic missile program. Since 2014, SABA has allegedly entered into contracts to procure and install numerous, multi-ton explosion-proof crane systems for the IRGC Research and Self-Sufficiency Jehad Organization (RSSJO).
   The two Ukrainian companies, Khors Aircompany and Dart Airlines, are alleged to have provided U.S.-origin aircraft and support services to Iran’s Caspian Air and Iraq’s Al-Naser Airlines. Caspian Air and Al-Naser Airlines were placed on the U.S. sanctions list in 2014 and 2015, respectively, for their activities related to Iran’s IRGC.
   A new direction by OFAC, particularly in the case of the two Ukrainian companies, is to institute secondary sanctions which apply to non-U.S. persons for non-U.S. conduct that occurs for U.S. products or servicing U.S. products outside the United States to parties are on the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals list.