US sanctions Russia-linked financial network A7

The U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sweeping restrictions against the financial network A7, which is linked to Russia and was used to circumvent international sanctions. American authorities claim that the A7 infrastructure was used to process payments not only on behalf of Russian clients but also for Iran and entities connected to it.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced this on October 1 as part of Operation Economic Outcast, according to the U.S. Treasury.

The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated A7 Network as a significant transnational criminal organization. As a result, the assets of the network and entities acting on its behalf under U.S. jurisdiction are subject to blocking. U.S. persons and companies are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them without special authorization.

Simultaneously, the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposed prohibiting U.S. financial institutions from conducting transfers involving so-called A7 sub-agents. These are companies in third countries through which the network disguised payments linked to sanctioned entities as ordinary commercial transactions.

According to the U.S. Treasury, A7 used forged trade documents, import/export data, and inaccurate descriptions of goods. Such mechanisms allowed payments to be processed through the international financial system while concealing their true purpose.

The network's scale is estimated at tens of billions of dollars. According to the U.S. Treasury, citing data from A7 itself, by January 2026, it was processing over 2,000 transactions daily, and the total declared volume of completed transactions reached 7.5 trillion rubles — approximately $91.5 billion. This amount corresponded to roughly 13% of Russia's foreign trade in 2025.

A separate FinCEN investigation identified over $17 billion in operations conducted by network sub-agents from January 2025 to June 2026. American authorities allege that the A7 infrastructure was used by the Central Bank of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Tehran-linked entities, and participants in procurement schemes aimed at evading restrictions.

Some operations were linked to the sale of Iranian oil and arms purchases. According to the U.S. Treasury, one of A7's intermediaries dealt with entities involved in Iran's "shadow fleet," and associated companies received nearly $140 million from sanctions evasion scheme participants.

Washington links A7's management to Ilan Shor, who was previously sanctioned by the U.S. The network also includes infrastructure around A7A5 — a ruble-backed digital token created to facilitate international settlements in circumvention of restrictions.

Current measures expand sanctions imposed by the U.S. in August 2025 against individual A7 entities, including A7 LLC and Old Vector LLC. Now the restrictions extend to the network as a whole and its intermediary mechanism outside Russia.

The U.S. Treasury warned that foreign banks and companies may also face sanctions risks if they continue to conduct certain operations on behalf of A7 or other blocked entities.