The US imposed sanctions on eight Canadian entities over allegations that they enabled international transactions involving Iran .
The Treasury Department announced new penalties Friday on money services it claimed were helping Tehran and individuals with connections to the country exchange Iranian rials and other currencies for digital assets. The US and Canada have had an increasingly fraught relationship under the Trump administration, and Bessent has been critical of Canada in recent months amid a trade spat that escalated with retaliatory tariffs. Canada could improve its oversight of non-financial institutions that handle potentially sensitive money, including real estate firms and lawyers.
Some of the entities also worked with Ryan Wedding, a former Olympian accused by the FBI of running one of the world’s largest cocaine networks, according to a statement from Treasury. “Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial facilitators that provide sanctions evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement. It said Canadian legislation limits it from sharing information about compliance actions apart from monetary penalties. The Treasury chief said Canada has tried to have the benefits of being a US state without being one. That’s according to an evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force, the international body that sets standards to prevent money laundering and financing of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
