Iran evaded sanctions, moved money using Santander, Lloyd accounts: Report

By Victoria Cavaliere

Iran evaded sanctions and was able to covertly move money around the world using accounts at two of the UK’s biggest banks, Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Santander UK Plc, the Financial Times reported. 

The banks provided accounts to front companies secretly owned by a sanctioned Iranian petrochemicals company, the newspaper reported on Sunday, citing documents it viewed. The sanctions-evasion plan was backed by Iran’s intelligence services, the report said.

The state-controlled Petrochemical Commercial Company and its British subsidiary have been under US sanctions since 2018. The firm is accused of raising money for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps elite Quds force as well as cooperating with Russia to fund Iranian-backed proxy militias, the FT said.

Lloyds and Santander didn’t immediately comment when contacted by Bloomberg.

Santander told the newspaper it was unable to comment on specific client relationships but was “highly focused on sanctions compliance,” while Lloyds said it couldn’t comment on customers but that it complied with sanctions laws. 

The petrochemical company has also used companies in the UK to “receive funds from Iranian front entities in China while concealing their real ownership through ‘trustee agreements’ and nominee directors,” the newspaper reported, citing documents it analyzed. 

The US last week imposed a raft of sanctions targeting Iran’s ballistic-missile and drone programs as well as its ability to wage cyber warfare against the US. The US and UK recently launched airstrikes against Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen in an effort to stop the group’s attacks on ships in the Red Sea.