This press release is a must-read:

The US government is explicitly tying Canada to Iran: two nations in the US dog house right now:

Today, as part of Operation Economic Outcast, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated eight money services businesses based in Canada that enable the Iranian regime, sanctioned entities associated with the regime, and other illicit actors that move assets into and out of Iran.  These companies facilitate the exchange of Iranian rials and other currencies for digital assets to enable international transactions involving Iran.  Many of these businesses have facilitated transactions with sanctioned Iranian digital asset exchanges, as well as with digital asset addresses associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).    

“Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial facilitators that provide sanctions evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.  “Treasury will pursue and disrupt the Iranian regime’s financial channels anywhere in the world.”

The timing is interesting. Canada and Iran are usually not seen as collaborators of any sort.

And yet, the narrative of this press release is clear:

Canada is home to hundreds of money services businesses that enable the movement of funds into and out of Iran, both through cash-based value transfer systems and by converting cash into digital assets to send across borders. The entities designated in this action allow sanctioned Iranian entities to use their services, thereby providing the Iranian regime with financial lifelines and the ability to continue to finance terrorism and proxy groups. Many of these entities also receive and launder funds associated with other criminal activity. Although Canadian and international media sources have highlighted the sanctions evasion and terrorist financing-related risks that certain of these money services businesses pose, the entities designated today remain operational. Several of these entities have changed their business names and addresses in an attempt to evade detection and enforcement actions.

This is an interesting turn and one worth watching.