Radin Exchange

Radin Exchange is an Iranian foreign-currency exchange house designated by OFAC on 1 May 2026 under Sanctions Bulletin SB0483, as part of the Economic Fury Targets Iranian Shadow Banking Networks Moving Billions in Foreign Currency package. OFAC assessed that Radin Exchange alone 'enables billions of dollars' worth of transactions annually', serving as a key node in Iran's shadow banking infrastructure that converts oil revenues into accessible foreign currency.

The principal behind Radin Exchange is Nasser Ghasemi Rad, born 1 August 1969, a dual citizen of Iran and St Kitts and Nevis — an offshore passport arrangement used to enable international financial movement through jurisdictions that lack full US sanctions compliance infrastructure. OFAC also named Pedram Pirouzan in the same package. General Licence W (GL-W), issued the same day, authorises a wind-down period for transactions with the newly blocked persons. The St Kitts and Nevis citizenship is significant: it is a documented pattern in OFAC Iran designations, where principals acquire citizenship-by-investment passports from small Caribbean or Eastern European states to open correspondent banking relationships that an Iranian passport cannot access.

The designation forms part of OFAC's sustained campaign to sever the financial plumbing that converts Iranian crude exports into accessible revenue, running in parallel to the naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian FX exchange houses occupy a specific niche in this architecture: they accept oil-revenue proceeds from Chinese, Turkish, and UAE-based intermediaries and convert them into usable currency for Iranian domestic and government use, bypassing the formal banking channels cut off by sanctions since 2012. Radin Exchange's designation is one of dozens of similar actions since the war began; the broader shadow banking network remains partially intact.