Citing “Iranian officials and Western intelligence and diplomatic sources”, Reuters claims that at least $1 billion in cash has been smuggled into Iran in recent months to get around US-led sanctions.
The US Treasury alleged in December that the Iranian regime had obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in bank notes using front companies.
The three “Iranian Government sources” and three Western officials, all unnamed, said Tehran had been working on channels to obtain dollars since March. They said the money goes through money changers and front companies in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq. It is then hand-carried by groups of couriers on flights in first-class or business class from Dubai or Turkey, or brought across the Iraq-Iran border.
The Western and Iranian sources said Iran’s Central Bank worked with other entities, including sanctioned Iranian companies, to get the dollars. About $500 million came from Iraq and $500 million from Dubai, including through the sanctioned firms Sima General Trading Company and Belfast General Trading.
The Central Bank of Iran declined comment, as did government and bank officials in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
However, “an Iranian government official with knowledge of how the dollars were obtained” said front companies had “mushroomed” in Dubai for the payments. In return for dollars, the front companies were paid in United Arab Emirates dirhams or oil, the Iranian and Western sources said.
