The United States revealed details of a “complex” money laundering plan, based on exchanging Iranian oil for Venezuelan gold, under the rule of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury conducted a joint investigation with the Homeland Security Investigations Unit, which revealed a financing network linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the Lebanese Hezbollah.
According to the investigation, illegal Iranian oil and gold smuggling is used as a source of funding for activities supported by the Iranian regime, including Hezbollah operations.
Investigations led to the discovery of an Iranian citizen named Seyyed Naimai Badr al-Din Mousavi, accused of financing Hezbollah, and the US Treasury included him on the sanctions list, in addition to three companies linked to him.
Washington asserts that Mousavi, who is also linked to the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, facilitated financing operations through cooperation with several parties, including officials within the Venezuelan regime. His relations extended to include direct contact with Maduro, and he assumed the financial facilitation tasks carried out by businessman Alex Saab after his arrest in 2020.
Over the course of more than five years, Mousavi created a financial network that included “suspicious” parties around the world, to circumvent US sanctions imposed on Iranian oil, for the benefit of Hezbollah and the Iranian regime.
Data indicate that Mousavi smuggled Iranian oil to Venezuela in exchange for gold, which was purchased at below-market prices and then sent to Iran for the Quds Force as part of Hezbollah’s financing channel.
The gold was transported via planes belonging to the sanctioned Mahan Air company, to Hezbollah members in Tehran, including financier Ali Qaser, before it was later smuggled to Türkiye for sale.
The United States confirmed that the Maduro regime granted Musawi complete freedom of movement inside Venezuela, due to his close relations with the regime.
Mousavi also cooperated with drug trafficker Tariq Zidane El Aissami Maddah and illicit shipping facilitator Viktor Artemov, both of whom are subject to US sanctions, to smuggle Iranian oil to Venezuela.
Smuggling methods included ship-to-ship transfers, falsifying automatic identification systems, and the use of fake oil tankers, which enabled operations to be financed through gold and diamonds.
Mousavi is also linked to the sale of Iranian liquefied petroleum gas and crude oil, in coordination with his partner Seyed Imamjuma, by using several companies to facilitate these activities.
The revelation of this network coincides with the US Treasury Department’s announcement of a new sanctions package targeting the “Shamkhani Network” for Iranian oil smuggling, which is led by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani.
The sanctions included more than 20 individuals, companies, and ships operating within this network, in what Washington described as the “strongest blow” since the Donald Trump administration reactivated the “maximum pressure” policy on Iran.
