U.S. targets Iranian security chiefs, prison and shadow-banking network

The United States announced a coordinated sanctions package targeting senior Iranian security officials, Fardis Prison and an 18-member shadow-banking network accused of laundering oil and petrochemical revenues to finance domestic repression and support militant groups abroad. Treasury and State Department releases dated Jan. 16, 2026, said the designations aim to choke financial channels that U.S. officials say have underwritten a violent crackdown on the country’s largest anti-government protests.

Principal Deputy State Department Spokesperson Tommy Pigott stated: “As the brave people of Iran continue to fight for their basic rights, the Iranian regime has responded with violence and cruel repression against its own people.” The administration framed the move as a combined human-rights and counter-finance action, using the United States’ sanctions toolbox to hold both perpetrators and enablers accountable.

Among the named targets is Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council for National Security, who the announcement says was among the first officials to call for violence against protesters. Fardis Prison was designated as an institution where women have faced what the U.S. described as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The Treasury also named four regional commanders in Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for roles in crackdowns in Lorestan and Fars provinces, alleging security forces in Fars killed “countless peaceful demonstrators” and that hospitals there were inundated with gunshot wound patients.

The financial component of the package, led by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, designated 18 individuals and entities described as operating a shadow-banking system that moved proceeds from petroleum and petrochemical sales through front companies in the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Britain and other jurisdictions. Two Iranian banks, Bank Melli and Shahr Bank, were identified as connected to the network. Named firms included Iran-based Nikan Pezhvak Aria Kish Company, UAE-based Empire International Trading FZE and HMS Trading FZE, Singapore-based Golden Mist PTE. Ltd., and Qeshm-linked Tejarat Hermes Energy Qeshm.

U.S. officials said the network relied on front companies, trading firms and shipping arrangements to route funds outside regulated channels, depriving ordinary Iranians of economic benefits while fueling repression and regional proxy activity. The package follows reporting of a nearly week-long internet blackout and a sharp contraction in visible demonstrations after a forceful security response, context that U.S. statements cited in justifying the designations.

The immediate market implications are chiefly in compliance and trade flows rather than a direct hit to global oil supply. By naming banks and trading firms in established commodity hubs, the measures raise the compliance burden for international banks, commodity traders and shipowners that handle payments or logistics tied to Iranian exports. That could increase transaction costs for buyers depending on the intensity of secondary enforcement and private-sector risk aversion, creating sporadic price volatility or delays for shipments tied to the region.

Strategically, the sanctions signal a longer-term U.S. approach that pairs human-rights pressure with financial disruption. Enforcement will test the ability of authorities to trace opaque payment channels and to persuade third-country intermediaries to sever ties. Absent a significant change in buyers or enforcement, Iran may further rely on informal barter arrangements, alternative currencies or deeper use of shadow-banking methods to sustain export revenues, prolonging a cat-and-mouse dynamic that has shaped sanctions-era Iranian finance for years.