TREASURY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration on Monday [11-20-17] imposed sanctions on what the Treasury Department describes as a ‘large-scale’ Iranian counterfeiting ring that it says is run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The action against the network affiliated with the IRGC, an elite military wing that has taken over swaths of the Iranian economy, is part of a broader strategy by the administration of President Donald Trump to escalate sanctions pressure on Tehran. Monday’s designations also are likely to bolster Washington’s case in Europe for governments to strengthen their own sanction regimes against Tehran amid growing tensions with allies over the Trump administration’s criticism of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
Treasury officials said the network used deceptive means to bypass European export-control restrictions, buying advanced equipment and materials to print counterfeit Yemeni bank notes potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the IRGC and the group’s overseas branch, the Quds Force…
Officials at Iran’s United Nations mission didn’t respond to a request for comment.”
-Ian Talley, “U.S. Treasury Sanctions ‘Large-Scale’ Iran Counterfeiting Ring,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 20, 2017 04:34pm