Iran used accounts at Santander UK and Lloyds, two of the UK’s largest banks, to covertly move money around the world and evade international sanctions, the Financial Times (FT) has reported.
Based on a series of documents accessed by the economic newspaper, the entities provided accounts to British front companies that were secretly owned by a sanctioned Iranian petrochemical company. The plan had the backing of the Iranian intelligence services. The bank’s shares fell more than 5% this Monday on the stock market, days after presenting record results.
Banco Santander claims to have carried out an internal investigation that confirms that the entity “has not failed to comply with US regulations on sanctions imposed on third parties.”
As they explain, “the bank has policies and procedures to ensure that sanctions requirements are met. Santander will continue to proactively collaborate with the relevant British and US authorities.”
The state-controlled Petrochemical Commercial Company (PCC) was part of a network the United States accuses of raising hundreds of millions of dollars for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force and working with Russian intelligence agencies to raise money. for the Iranian militias.
The newspaper indicates that both PCC and its British subsidiary PCC UK have been under US sanctions since November 2018. But according to a series of documents, emails and accounting records, during this time the PCC division in the United Kingdom has continued to operate. from an office located in Grosvenor Gardens, in the central London neighborhood of Belgravia, using a complex network of front entities.
Documents seen by the FT show that since coming under US sanctions, PCC has used companies in the UK to receive funds from Iranian front entities in China, while concealing its real ownership through “trust agreements” and directors. nominees. One of them, Pisco UK, is registered in a single-family home in the English county of Surrey and uses a business account with Santander UK, according to the newspaper.
Internal documents, some of which have been leaked online by the Iranian opposition website WikiIran, show that Pisco is controlled by the PCC and not by a British citizen named Abdollah-Siauash Fahimi as listed in corporate records. In 2021, Pisco’s Santander account received a transfer from a Chinese company called Black Tulip, which according to internal PCC records is another trust company controlled by a PCC employee, the FT notes.
In principle, Pisco Uk is not subject to sanctions. Sources familiar with the case assure that the conditions are not met for the alarms that a bank has to detect irregularities to be activated. “He is not a subject who has violated anything. The financial architecture that the State of Iran has set up does this precisely to avoid any control.”
From Banco Santander they prefer to wait for the results of the investigations because, as they told La Vanguardia
“We cannot comment on clients. Santander complies with its legal and regulatory obligations, and we pay close attention to regulatory compliance regarding sanctions imposed on third parties.”
The entity’s shares suffered falls of more than 5% on the stock market this Monday, days after presenting record results with a profit of more than 11,000 million euros.
In addition to the sanctions that have been in place for years, such as those for its nuclear program, last week the US imposed another series for its ballistic missile and drone programs, as well as its ability to wage cyberwar.
The revelations come after the Royal Air Force recently joined US airstrikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
