US sanctions A7 payment network linked to Moldova's Ilan Shor
The United States has imposed sanctions on the A7 payment network, which U.S. authorities describe as a transnational criminal organization with links to Russia that was allegedly used to circumvent Western sanctions.
The network is led by sanctioned Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, CE Report quotes MOLDPRES.
The Treasury Department announced on October 1 that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had sanctioned A7. Separately, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposed prohibiting certain fund transfers involving A7 sub-agents and issued an alert to financial institutions on identifying suspicious transactions.
According to U.S. authorities, A7 developed a global network of sub-agent companies through which payments involving sanctioned individuals and sectors were presented as ordinary commercial activity. The U.S. Treasury said the network used, among other methods, falsified commercial documents and import-export records to conceal the nature of certain transactions.
The Treasury Department said A7 has links to Russia and that its financial infrastructure was also used by Iranian actors, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). According to U.S. authorities, the network’s sub-agents facilitated transactions linked to Iranian oil sales, arms purchases and other sanctions-evasion activities.
Data presented by A7 and cited by the U.S. Treasury show that in January 2026, the network claimed to process more than 2,000 transactions a day. Its reported total volume exceeded 7.5 trillion rubles, equivalent to approximately $91.5 billion, a figure U.S. authorities estimate represented about 13% of Russia’s foreign trade volume in 2025.
Ilan Shor is identified by the U.S. Treasury as the leader of the A7 network. The department describes him as a person sanctioned by the United States and says A7 includes a number of sub-agent companies used to disguise illicit transactions as legitimate commercial operations.
Following the sanctions, the assets and property interests of A7 and the designated entities located in the United States or under the control of U.S. persons are blocked. Transactions by U.S. persons involving them are generally prohibited without authorization from OFAC.
The action is part of the U.S. “Economic Outcast” operation, through which Washington is seeking to counter financial networks used to circumvent sanctions and transfer funds to individuals and entities targeted by U.S. sanctions.
Ilan Shor was definitively sentenced on December 13, 2024, to 15 years in prison in the “Bank Fraud” case. According to Moldova’s Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Shor is required to repay more than 5.2 billion Moldovan lei to Banca de Economii.
Shor fled Moldova in 2019 following the departure of the Democratic Party from government. He is on the sanctions lists of the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as on the “Myrotvorets” database, a list of individuals described as enemies of the Ukrainian state.
Photo: Chat GPT
