US imposes sanctions on Turkish bank, prompting legal threat

Washington has sanctioned a Turkish bank and two subsidiaries, accusing them of helping Iran move money through an international shadow-banking network linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi, known as Golden Global Bank, facilitated “tens of millions of dollars’ worth of transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force” and gave the Iranian government banking access to transfer funds internationally. It also alleged that the bank was created to help Iran’s shadow-banking network move oil revenues from China to Turkey using gold and cash.

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We will exercise all our rights of objection and legal recourse in the most effective manner and will take the necessary actions at the earliest against these allegations and the decision.

Golden Global Bank rejected the accusations on Friday. It said it had complied with all local and international banking rules and that no transactions conducted by the bank could substantiate the U.S. claims. The bank said the people and entities named in the sanctions decision “have never been and are not currently customers” of Golden Global.

“We will exercise all our rights of objection and legal recourse in the most effective manner and will take the necessary actions at the earliest against these allegations and the decision,” the bank said.

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Financial institutions continue to find out the hard way that we are serious about Operation Economic Outcast.

The sanctions place Golden Global and its subsidiaries on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Specially Designated Nationals list, cutting off their access to the U.S. financial system. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the action showed that financial institutions would continue to face consequences under Washington’s “Operation Economic Outcast.”

U.S. Ambassador to Turkiye Tom Barrack sought to limit the wider impact of the move, saying Turkish officials should not interpret it as a judgment on the country. “The health of the Turkish financial system is not in question; the conduct of one institution was,” he wrote on X. The action follows U.S. steps against the UAE operations of an Egyptian bank over alleged Iran-linked transactions, as Washington intensifies its economic pressure on Tehran.

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The health of the Turkish financial system is not in question; the conduct of one institution was.