More than $17 billion in transactions processed cumulatively, A7 Network designated by the U.S. Treasury as a significant transnational criminal organization

Odaily News: The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced on October 1 that its "Operation Economic Blockade" has taken action against A7 Network and designated it as a "significant transnational criminal organization." The U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network intends to prohibit fund transfers involving A7 Network sub-agents and require financial institutions to identify and report related suspicious transactions. The U.S. Treasury stated that A7 Network is a "shadow banking network" with ties to Russia that is utilized by Iran for sanctions evasion, disguising sanctioned or illicit fund flows as normal commercial activity through third-party companies, falsified trade documents, fake import and export records, and misleading goods descriptions. Investigations show that A7 Network sub-agents processed more than $17 billion in transactions cumulatively between January 2025 and June 2026.

A7 Network, meanwhile, claims that as of January 2026, it processes more than 2,000 transactions per day, with a total transaction volume exceeding 7.5 trillion rubles, approximately $91.5 billion. The U.S. Treasury stated that the network is utilized by entities such as Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to provide funding channels for Iranian oil sales, weapons procurement, and other activities; one of its sub-agents transacted with an entity connected to Iran's "shadow fleet." A7 Network is also alleged to be linked to Iranian digital asset trading platform Nobitex and to have facilitated fund flows related to North Korean hacking attacks on crypto trading platforms. The announcement also mentioned the ruble-backed token A7A5 Token issued by Old Vector LLC, which the U.S. Treasury said was used by A7 Network to evade sanctions and help sanctioned infrastructure providers profit through token circulation.