The United States Department of the Treasury has added the Turkish bank Golden Global Bank to the list of sanctioned entities of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), considering it a key player in the financing of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the external arm responsible for protecting the strategic interests of the Iranian regime outside its borders, within Washington's economic pressure operation on Tehran known as "Economic Pariah".
With this decision, all assets of the bank are immobilized in U.S. territory, a measure that also extends to any individual or legal entity that owns up to 50% of the ownership of those banned assets. Likewise, all operations linked to businesses, funds, goods, and services of the Istanbul-based entity are prohibited.
OFAC is empowered to punish foreign banks that maintain relations with Golden Global Bank, which would imply their expulsion from the dollar system. At the same time, rewards are established for those who provide information about violations exceeding a value of one million dollars.
In this way, the Turkish bank is excluded from the financial system of the United States and the Treasury issues a warning to the rest of the entities that they could face the same consequences if they persist in their ties with the sanctioned entity.
"Financial institutions continue to learn the hard way that we are serious about the 'Economic Pariah' operation. While we hope it will not be necessary to sanction more banks, this ultimately depends on how quickly the international community reconsiders and stops supporting the Iranian murderous regime. We know who they are, we know where they are, and we will continue to act alongside our allies and partners until we have definitively defeated the Iranian regime," said the head of the U.S. Treasury, Scott Bessent.
U.S. authorities conclude that Golden Global Bank was established "for the purpose of allowing the network of Iranian financial intermediaries to transfer oil revenues from China to Turkey, where then the money changers of that network could convert them into cash and gold." According to the Treasury, the Turkish entity facilitated "knowingly" operations towards accounts controlled by the Quds Forces.