US Treasury Sanctions Hong Kong Firms Tied to Iran; Major Bank Faces Imminent Action

Washington sanctioned nearly 60 people, companies and vessels tied to Iran on Monday, and more than a dozen of the newly designated firms are registered in Hong Kong or Shenzhen, according to the US Treasury Department. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a "major financial institution" would be named in a separate announcement by the end of this week — a deadline that falls as Hong Kong absorbs fallout from the first round.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the entities under what it calls Operation Economic Outcast, accusing them of moving money and sensitive equipment for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a defense-linked research institution. Sixteen of the firms named are Hong Kong- or Shenzhen-based, according to a breakdown by Asia Times.

At the center of the Hong Kong cluster is Sweet Ocean Industrial Limited, which Treasury said served as an intermediary for laser-optics equipment bound for Iran's Malek Ashtar University of Technology. Treasury also named related firms it said funneled payments through the same network, including DEC Photonics Limited, Feili Co Limited, Minvur Limited, Feisu Limited and Guska Co Limited.

None of the companies has been charged with a crime. A designation freezes any US assets and bars Americans from dealing with the firms; it is not a criminal finding. Sweet Ocean and the other Hong Kong-registered companies named could not be reached for comment.

Asked whether Beijing-linked banks would be spared, Bessent said "no one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions." He declined to name the institution he said would be designated by week's end, and Treasury has so far avoided sanctioning any of the major Chinese banks that handle Iran's oil trade.

Hong Kong's government has said it enforces United Nations sanctions on Iran but not unilateral US measures — a position it repeated this month after Washington warned a tanker bound for the city over a separate Iran dispute. Treasury has given other countries a "defined timeline" to cut Iran-related business or face the same secondary sanctions now hanging over the promised bank designation.