U.S. Treasury sanctions Canadian firms connected to Ryan Wedding and Iran

The United States Treasury Department has slapped sanctions on eight Canadian businesses for allegedly helping to evade sanctions on Iran’s government. The department says it sanctioned money services businesses in British Columbia and Ontario in co-ordination with Fintrac, Canada’s anti-money laundering watchdog.The U.S. Treasury said several of the entities being sanctioned also worked with Ryan Wedding, the alleged drug kingpin and former Canadian Olympic snowboarder.The department names several companies based in Ontario and British Columbia, including the Million Exchange, NIA Nations Currency, Farah Exchange, Darvish Exchange and several numbered companies.The department alleges that Wedding used several of these services to launder millions of dollars in drug money through the transfer of digital assets before he was arrested in January.“Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial facilitators that provide sanctions-evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a news release. Story continues below advertisement “Treasury will pursue and disrupt the Iranian regime’s financial channels anywhere in the world.” Ge...