Treasury Sanctions Istanbul Bank Over Alleged Iran Oil Revenue Pipeline
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned a Turkish investment bank on Friday, according to PBS NewsHour, accusing Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi of channeling Iranian oil revenues and providing banking access to entities linked to Tehran's Revolutionary Guard.
The action marks the second financial institution penalized under Operation Economic Outcast, the Trump administration's campaign to cut off Iran's remaining global trade connections.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he hopes the action will be the last of its kind, but made clear that further penalties depend on how fast the international community stops conducting business with Iran.
He also warned that the U.S. and its partners will keep pressing until Iran's financial networks are dismantled.
What Golden Global Bank Was Accused of Doing
Treasury alleged that Golden Global was set up as part of Iran's so-called "rahbar" exchange network, a web of front organizations designed to move oil proceeds from China into Turkey, where the funds could be converted into cash and gold.
The department said the bank and its subsidiaries processed tens of millions of dollars in transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and provided Iranian entities with correspondent banking access — the kind of relationship that allows money to move across borders.
The bank, founded in 2019, bills itself as Turkey's first interest-free investment bank, CNBC reported. It also said the institution had "knowingly offered" services to Iranian financial entities already sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022.
Golden Global controls approximately $517 million in assets and holds less than a tenth of a percent of Turkey's banking market, according to the financial data site TheBanks.EU, as reported by PBS NewsHour.
Gene Lange, the acting Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the bank had received repeated warnings over the years and that Friday's action was a direct consequence of ignoring them, PBS NewsHour reported.
Gaps in the Broader Iran Sanctions Push
The sanctions on Golden Global are only the second concrete step taken since Bessent launched Operation Economic Outcast on Aug. 24, a campaign President Donald Trump described as an economic campaign of unprecedented intensity against Tehran.
The pace has been slower than the rhetoric suggested.
China, Iran's largest oil buyer and biggest trading partner, has not been sanctioned.
Bessent has maintained that Beijing is not exempt, but the Times of Israel reported that broader pressure on major trading partners has so far produced warnings and negotiations rather than penalties.
The administration also stopped short of imposing full sanctions on an Egyptian bank with UAE operations last week, limiting its action to restricting those branches.
Bessent had previously told reporters he wanted trading partners to have time to distance themselves from Iran before facing consequences, citing concerns about global financial stability.
Military and Diplomatic Pressures Mount
The economic campaign is running alongside renewed U.S. military strikes, which have prompted Iranian retaliation in the region, PBS NewsHour reported.
Trump is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month, and some foreign policy analysts have expressed doubt that the administration will risk straining that relationship before the summit takes place, CNBC noted.
The Treasury announcement also came one day after Turkey's state-owned Halkbank disclosed a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department in a nine-year case involving Iranian sanctions violations.