US sanctions Turkish bank, two subsidiaries in latest pressure on Iran

By Ismail Shakil, David Lawder and Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The ‌U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions ​on a small Turkish ​investment bank and two subsidiaries on Friday as part of the Trump administration's campaign to increase economic pressure on Iran, the department said.

The Treasury said it designated Istanbul-based Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi, asset manager Golden Global Portfoy Yonetimi Anonim Sirketi and asset leasing company Golden Global Varlik Kiralama Anonim Sirketi for facilitating trade between China ‌and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force.

The move marks the first time a bank in a NATO ally has been hit under the ⁠current campaign. Washington is tightening its economic squeeze on Tehran as U.S. military strikes and a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have failed to force Iran to the negotiating table.

Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the sanctions ‌put all three entities on its Specially Designated Nationals ‌list, cutting them off from the dollar-based financial system. Treasury also issued a general license to allow the wind-down of transactions with the sanctioned entities.

The latest U.S. government action sent a clear message to institutions that the U.S. government believes are facilitating trade with Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

"We know who ​you are, we know where you are, and we will continue to take action together with our allies and partners until we have buried the head of the Iranian snake,” he said.

On X, he said the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz had prevented Iranian crude cargoes from reaching China, heaping pressure on Beijing, which relies on Iran for crude oil, and ⁠Tehran, which needs the revenue to continue the war.

"Inventory cannot be replenished as crude piles up aboard vessels trapped inside the strait. Iran’s export lifeline is being cut off: stranded oil, finite storage, and rapidly shrinking revenue," he said. Separately he told America's ​Voice News that further sanctions against another bank were possible next week.

Golden Global Yatırım Bankası, Turkey's 35th-largest bank, rejected the Treasury's allegations. It said it has complied with local and international banking and compliance requirements, adding it would pursue legal rights against the unfounded allegations. It added that individuals and entities named ​in the OFAC sanctions decision were not its customers and that it had no direct or indirect dealings ‌with them.

Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi held total assets of about 25 billion Turkish lira ($516.63 million) in 2025, according to database TheBanks.EU.

TREASURY ALLEGES IRAN OIL MONEY CONDUIT

Miad Maleki, sanctions expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said the Turkish bank was tiny, but it was the first in a NATO country to ⁠be hit under the current operation. "The message to Ankara is pretty blunt: as the Gulf gets shut down, Turkey is the obvious place for this money to move next, and Treasury is already there," he said.

Any foreign bank that keeps doing business with the Turkish bank was also at risk, he said, adding, "That knock-on effect is the real point of an action like this, not the half-billion-dollar bank itself."

The Treasury said in a statement ⁠that Golden Global was established for the purpose of enabling Iran's shadow banking network to transfer oil revenues from China to Turkey, where it could then be converted to cash and gold by money exchangers.

The Treasury said ​that Golden Global has knowingly offered to provide correspondent banking services to Iranian financial institutions, enabling transactions through accounts controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force and its proxies, including Turkish businessman Sitki Ayan and his companies, which were hit with sanctions in 2022.

Bessent, who last month announced an "economic onslaught" against Iran's financial links around the world, has said Washington is trying to force Tehran back to the negotiating table.

Last ‌week, Washington moved to impose Patriot Act curbs on Egyptian lender Banque Misr's branches in the United Arab Emirates from U.S. dollar transactions over their dealings with Iran. But the move did not affect Misr's head office or branches elsewhere, and will not go into effect for 30 days.

Sanctions expert ‌Brett Erickson, managing principal of Obsidian Risk Advisors, questioned how effective the action would be and said it could draw retaliation from Tehran.

"The sanctioning of Golden Global will marginally increase pressure on Iran. But hurting Iran and ⁠changing the outcome of this war are two very different things," Erickson said.

"If ‌this pressure cannot meaningfully change the economic trajectory of the ​war, Washington may simply be poking the bear and daring Iran to retaliate in ways that could inflict far greater damage on the global economy," Erickson said.

($1 = 48.4384 liras)

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil, David Lawder, Andrea Shalal and Katharine Jackson; additional reporting by Ebru Tuncay and Can Sezer in Istanbul; Editing by Michelle ‌Nichols and Sanjeev Miglani)

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