The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated Istanbul-based bank Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi over its alleged ties with Iran, the US Treasury said on September 4.

The authority has also targeted the Turkish investment bank’s two subsidiaries, namely Golden Global Varlik Kiralama, a special purpose vehicle for selling Islamic bonds, and Golden Global Portfoy Yonetimi, a portfolio management company, under Executive Order 13902. The order targets key sectors of the Iranian economy.

Responding to the designation, the bank issued a press release, denying the allegations.

As of end-June, Golden Global was the 36th largest bank in Turkey with Turkish lira (TRY) 32bn ($663mn) of assets.

The US Treasury blacklisted the bank and its asset management subsidiaries for facilitating shadow banking transactions on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The move marked the latest escalation in Washington’s aggressive campaign to sever Tehran’s access to global financial markets.

The Treasury’s press release was titled: “Treasury severs Iranian regime’s financial lifelines in Turkey.”

Turkey not targeted, says US ambassador

In response to the press release, US Ambassador to Ankara Tom Barrack (@USAMBTurkiye) issued a statement on X.

“Today, the United States Department of the Treasury designated a single Türkiye-based financial institution and two of its subsidiaries for their role in moving funds on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps–Qods Force,” he said.

“We want to place this measure in its proper context, because context is everything, and because the relationship between the United States and the Republic of Türkiye is far larger than any one institution or any one day,” he added.

Turkish government collaborated in process

“Throughout this process, Treasury and its Turkish counterparts have been in direct and continuous contact,” Barrack also wrote.

“This designation is aimed at the conduct of one entity, not at a nation, not at a banking system, and not at an ally,” he stressed, adding: “It is enforcement, precise and lawful, and the United States makes no apology for protecting the architecture on which honest commerce everywhere depends.”

“It would be a serious error, here or in Ankara, to read this narrow measure as a judgment upon Türkiye. It is nothing of the kind... The health of the Turkish financial system is not in question; the conduct of one institution was,” he further wrote.

“For that reason we note with respect that Türkiye has moved as a sovereign partner should,” Barrack added.

“Rather than treat an uncomfortable disclosure as an affront, the Turkish authorities have engaged to clarify the ambiguities surrounding this matter and to inaugurate a process that will strengthen transparency going forward,” he said.

“That is not the reflex of a state with something to conceal; it is the conduct of a mature partner determined that its own house be, and be seen to be, in order,” he continued.

“Cooperation of this kind is worth more to the alliance than any assurance offered under pressure, because it is offered freely,” Barrack also wrote.

“Between serious partners, friction is not the exception to the relationship but a recurring feature of it, and the test is never whether a difficult matter arises but whether it is met with candor and resolved with dignity,” he added.

“We are confident, therefore, that this measure will in time be seen not as a strain upon the partnership but as an instance of its strength… We will continue this work together, in the same spirit of candor and common purpose that has carried the relationship this far,” he concluded.

Warning to business partners

Under the blacklisting, all property and assets of Golden Global Bank and its subsidiaries subject to US jurisdiction are frozen. Furthermore, foreign institutions that continue to transact with the bank face secondary sanctions that could result in them losing their own access to US dollar clearing, a mechanism designed to force international banks to immediately cut ties with the targeted Turkish firm.

China’s oil payments turn to gold in Istanbul

According to Treasury officials, Golden Global Bank was structured to process tens of millions of dollars in illicit transactions, acting as a crucial node in transferring Chinese oil revenues back to Turkey on behalf of Tehran's "rahbar" financial network. They added that the funds were then converted into physical cash and gold by Iranian-aligned money changers.

Sitki Ayan connection

The bank is also accused of having offered correspondent banking services to sanctioned Iranian financial entities, including trade networks tied to Sitki Ayan, a Turkish businessman designated by OFAC in 2022 for managing IRGC-Qods Force oil sales.

“Operation Economic Outcast”

The move against the bank falls under “Operation Economic Outcast”, also referred to as Economic D-Day, a sweeping sanctions enforcement initiative unveiled on August 24 by Secretary of the US Treasury Scott Bessent. The campaign aims to aggressively target middlemen institutions, third-country clearing hubs and shadow financial rails across Europe, the Middle East and Asia that enable Tehran to evade primary US sanctions.

Working with partners across the US government, the EU, the UK, Gulf partners and others, the Treasury is targeting any source of Iran’s illicit revenue as well as its sanctions evasion schemes used to move funds.

"Financial institutions continue to find out the hard way that we are serious about Operation Economic Outcast," Bessent (@SecScottBessent) wrote on X, adding: "We know who you are, we know where you are, and we will continue to take action together with our allies and partners until we have buried the head of the Iranian snake."

Tweet: Bessent claimed in one tweet that no Iranian crude cargoes have successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz to China since the US reinstated its blockade of the chokepoint.

Not the first time

Turkey-based entities and individuals have frequently drawn scrutiny from Western regulators over the provision of access to correspondent accounts and clearing channels used by Iranian, Syrian and Russian entities.

Ankara was yet to issue an official response to the Golden Globe sanctions.

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump pardoned Turkey’s government-run Halkbank (HALKB) for allegedly smuggling $20bn of oil revenues to Iran via a similar gold scheme between 2012 and 2016.