Sanctions & Procurement
We document the front companies, financial evasion structures, and procurement networks that sustain Iranian state activity under sanctions. Our work identifies entities operating under new identities, beneficial owners, and the channels that move restricted technology into Iran.
We document the entities and channels Iranian state actors use to operate under sanctions: front companies, intermediary networks, beneficial ownership structures, and the procurement chains that move restricted technology into the country. The aperture is specific: entities with documented links to sanctioned Iranian organizations, the people behind them, and the financial and logistical infrastructure that connects them to state customers.
Sanctions evasion sits inside a broader system of state activity. The companies that procure dual-use technology often share personnel with cyber-capability contractors. The financial networks that move money for procurement are sometimes the same ones used by influence operations or by networks supporting third-country activity. We treat the sanctions pillar as one face of the system, and our work here is informed by what we see across the others.
Our published research in this area has informed coverage at major international media outlets and supported government investigations and enforcement actions. Where our work has surfaced previously undocumented entities or relationships, it has contributed to designation decisions and regulatory action.
Five sub-areas inside the sanctions pillar.
Front Company Networks
Companies operating as fronts for sanctioned Iranian entities, including those that have rebranded after designation. Personnel continuity across entity changes, ownership structures, and the operational signatures that link new entities to designated predecessors.
Beneficial Ownership
The people behind entities that appear independent on paper. Family relationships, employment history, and the documentation that connects nominal owners to actual decision-makers. Iranian-language disclosures that often contradict English-language presentations.
Financial Evasion
Money flows through intermediaries connected to sanctioned Iranian entities. Payment channels, currency conversion routes, and the banking relationships that sustain restricted transactions despite formal sanctions enforcement.
Procurement Chains
How restricted technology reaches Iran: the brokers, the third-country intermediaries, the documentation patterns. Specific cases of dual-use technology procurement and the operational tradecraft used to obscure end users.
Entity Documentation
Detailed dossiers on specific companies, including registration documents, leadership, public-facing presence, and observable activity. The documentation that supports designation decisions, legal action, and journalistic verification.
Our work in sanctions and procurement draws on Persian-language corporate disclosures, Iranian business registries, our internal directory of entity relationships, and source networks with direct visibility into Iranian commercial activity.
Most analysis of Iranian sanctions evasion is produced by financial-intelligence firms working from English-language documentation, often without Persian-language capability and without source networks inside Iran. We work in Persian as a primary research language and examine Iranian-language disclosures that frequently contradict English-language presentations. This is the single most important factor separating depth from surface in this domain.
Read our full approach →Recent work in sanctions and procurement.
Published research in this domain is forthcoming.
See all Digital Impact Lab work →The sanctions pillar sits alongside three other domains of Iranian state activity online.
Cyber Operations
Iranian state-aligned threat actors, their infrastructure, and their operations against targets inside and outside the country.
Information Operations
State media ecosystems, IRGC-linked information networks, coordinated inauthentic behavior, and the narratives Tehran promotes online.
Network Infrastructure
Iranian internet architecture, censorship and surveillance systems, connectivity patterns, and the AI-driven analysis we use to monitor conditions on Iranian networks at scale.