We all heard about Elizabeth Karren's Russian crypto conspiracies, but how many of you heard the story that broke last week about Iran successfully laundering $80+Billion a year through cash and commercial banks?

This story was published by the Wall Street Journal this past week, but I couldn't find it printed in other legacy media for some reason. Funny how that works:

Clandestine Finance System Helped Iran Withstand Sanctions Crush, Documents Show https://www.wsj.com/articles/clandestine-finance-system-helped-iran-withstand-sanctions-crush-documents-show-11647609741

Iran established a clandestine banking and finance system to handle tens of billions of dollars in annual trade banned under U.S.-led sanctions, enabling Tehran to endure the economic siege and giving it leverage in multilateral nuclear talks, according to Western diplomats, intelligence officials and documents.

The system, which comprises accounts in foreign commercial banks, proxy companies registered outside the country, firms that coordinate the banned trade, and a transaction clearinghouse within Iran, has helped Tehran resist the Biden administration’s pressure to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal, buying it time to advance its nuclear program even while negotiations were under way.

Mesbahi-Moghaddam, a senior Iranian political figure who is close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said in a live debate on social media in January last year that covert import and export transactions amount to $80 billion a year. The International Monetary Fund estimates it will grow to $150 billion in 2022, including foreign sales that are banned under the sanctions, more than twice the levels during the brief period when Iran was freed from sanctions.