German bank focusing on international business with Iran; has facilitated billions of dollars in transactions on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks and Iranian proliferators.
Added to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on September 7, 2010, pursuant to Executive Order 13382, which targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their delivery systems; removed from the SDN list in January 2016 as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but identified as a part of the Government of Iran, prohibiting transactions with U.S. parties; listed by the European Union on May 23, 2011 as an entity linked to Iran’s proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities or Iran’s development of nuclear weapon delivery systems; removed from the E.U. list in January 2016 as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
In 2007 and in 2009, in cooperation with Bank Mellat, facilitated over $500,000 in transactions between a weapons exporter and a subsidiary of Iran Electronics Industries (IEI), according to the U.S. Treasury Department; provides financial services to Bank Mellat, Persia International Bank, the Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI), and Post Bank of Iran; with EDBI, helped Iran purchase more than $3 million in material for its missile program beginning in late 2007; reportedly conducted Euro-denominated transactions on behalf of Bank Sepah as part of a 2009 sanctions-evasion scheme; named by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as an Iranian institution with which transactions pose a money laundering threat; reportedly has done over a billion dollars of business for Iranian companies associated with Iran’s conventional military and ballistic missile procurement programs, including Defense Industries Organization (DIO), Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO), and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Services include letters of credit, payment processing, and assistance in Iran-related export and import transactions; Hamburg Head Office S.W.I.F.T. Code is EIHBDEHH; Hamburg Head Office Bank Code is 203 103 00; Kish Island Branch S.W.I.F.T. Code is EIHBIRTHKSH; Tehran Branch S.W.I.F.T. Code is EIHBIRTHTEH.
Chairman is Siavosh Naghshineh; Supervisory Board members have included: Mohammad-Reza Pishrow, Ghorban Daniali, Ali Divandari, Mohammad Reza Saroukhani, Majidreza Davari, Ahmad Hatami Yazd, and Gholamreza Zalpour; shareholders include Bank of Industry and Mine, Bank Mellat, and Bank Tejarat; has served as a correspondent bank of Bank Mellat’s Seoul Branch; other correspondent banks include EDBI and Bank Saderat Iran.
Established in 1971 as Deutsch-Iranische Handelsbank AG.
Source: / Iranwatch /