Russia’s leading bank has become a hub for Moscow and Tehran’s sanctions-evasion schemes

Sberbank of Russia serves as a central coordinating hub in a large-scale international financial network used by Moscow and Tehran to systematically circumvent Western sanctions through cryptocurrency platforms, according to findings from an investigation by the Middle East Forum think tank. Source: The Insider

According to researchers, the Iranian platform Shelbit, the A7 network, and the TokenSpot exchange have built a unified settlement infrastructure based on the USDT stablecoin, with final transactions legalized and processed with the involvement of Russia’s largest state-owned bank.

Cryptocurrency transaction volumes surged after Russia passed a law legalizing the use of digital currency in foreign trade settlements. Sberbank, which is subject to full US sanctions, swiftly launched specialized settlement channels for Russian and foreign counterparties.

Data from analytics firm TRM Labs shows that more than six billion dollars passed through Shelbit platform wallets alone, some of which is directly linked to the infrastructure of Iran’s IRGC and Hamas’s financial networks. Meanwhile, the TokenSpot exchange effectively served as a front for laundering funds belonging to the successors of the blocked Garantex.

In light of these revelations, the Middle East Forum recommended that the US Treasury Department treat all the platforms involved as a single transnational system and impose direct sanctions on TokenSpot and the Russian banks processing Iranian payments.

In addition, experts are calling for the forced freezing of USDT tokens in all wallets linked to the A7 coordination network. The US financial intelligence service previously classified the A7 network as a transnational criminal organization, documenting that more than seventeen billion dollars had been moved through its subagents for the benefit of Iran’s Central Bank and sanctioned military entities.

Recall that the A7 network helped Russia procure military equipment in violation of sanctions.