The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on Thursday proposed a Section 311 “special measure” that, if finalized, would cut MBaer Merchant Bank AG off from the American financial system.

The bureau accused the Swiss private bank of providing financial support to illicit actors linked to Iran and Russia. Since the bank’s launch in 2018, it has enabled money laundering, terrorist financing, and other criminal activity on behalf of such entities as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Force, FinCEN claimed. 

In one instance that the bureau said had not previously been made public, MBaer processed more than $37 million likely tied to an Iranian oil-smuggling and money-laundering scheme. 

“MBaer has funneled over a hundred million dollars through the U.S. financial system on behalf of illicit actors tied to Iran and Russia,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a statement. 

Under the proposed special measure, FinCEN would invoke its power to prohibit U.S. covered financial institutions from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for or on behalf of MBaer, require those institutions to take reasonable steps not to process transactions through a foreign bank’s U.S. correspondent account if the transaction involves MBaer, and require special due diligence on foreign correspondent accounts engaged in MBaer-related transactions. 

FinCEN described MBaer as a small private bank headquartered in Zurich. 

Read more at the U.S. Treasury Department here