Overview
- The Treasury, which designated A7 on Thursday, immediately blocked property under U.S. jurisdiction tied to the network and prohibited U.S. persons from transacting with it.
- FinCEN published an alert and proposed a rule that would bar covered U.S. financial institutions from transmitting funds involving named A7 sub‑agents and opened a 30-day public comment period.
- FinCEN traced more than $17 billion in dollar-denominated transfers through A7 sub‑agents between January 2025 and June 2026 while blockchain analytics cited at least $179.1 billion in transactions using the A7A5 ruble‑backed token.
- Treasury says A7 used third‑country 'sub‑agents,' shell companies, falsified trade records, controlled bank accounts and bespoke VPNs to hide sanctioned beneficiaries and that parts of the network served Iranian oil sales and weapons procurement.
- The designation builds on past U.K. and U.S. actions, names links to Ilan Shor and Promsvyazbank, and is likely to force banks, correspondent banks and crypto platforms to tighten screening or cut ties with opaque intermediaries.