NEW INFORMATION ANSWERS QUESTIONS ABOUT OFAC SANCTIONS OF OBSCURE PRIVATE IRANIAN COMPANIES

If you are like me, you have always wondered why OFAC has taken the trouble to sanction specific, small Iranian private companies that one can never find any information on, particularly regarding international transactions. The public release of information about a special-purpose unit within the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) seems to have put the matter to rest.

Apparently, according to a report, there exists a special operations component within the IRGC, whose sole task is to smuggle weapons overseas. This unit, which hides the weapons within foods or substances that are powdered, or which contain legitimate mechanical parts, or buries the weapons underneath a non-lethal shipment, uses small shell Iranian companies, as fronts, to disguise the cargo.  In truth and in fact, it is an IRGC weapons transport, to Hamas, Hezbollah, or whichever terrorist organization is the end user. That explains OFAC's need to sanction these obscure front companies, and why it is so relentless in imposing civil penalties upon US companies that violate the Iran sanctions;  many of the sanctioned companies are weapons shippers.