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US collects $7 million in Iranian assets amid pursuit of 'complex international conspiracy'

The funds are just a piece of a larger investigation that includes up to a billion dollars worth of Iranian assets.
WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 05: The U.S. Department of Justice seal on the stage where U.S. and U.K. Law enforcement officials will announce warrants for the arrests of Maksim Viktorovich Yakubets and Igor Olegovich Turashev, two Russian hackers associated with a group called Evil Corp., at the U.S. Department of Justice on December 5, 2019 in Washington, DC. Today the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), and the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)

A complex international scheme to outmaneuver US sanctions against Iran has yielded the US government $7 million in Iranian funds that will now be used toward Americans affected by international state sponsors of terrorism, the US Justice Department announced on Tuesday.

In coordination with the FBI, IRS, domestic offices and multiple foreign partners from the United Arab Emirates, South Korea and the country of Georgia, the US Department of Justice announced that the funds are just a piece of a much larger puzzle that includes up to a billion dollars worth of Iranian assets. The collection comes as tensions continue to escalate between Washington and Tehran in the final days of US President Donald Trump’s administration.

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