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Practice areas · Assets and banking

Banks do not ask whether the money is clean. They ask what evidences it.

For assets from Iran that evidence is a question of Iranian law — which transaction stands behind it, which registered document carries it, and at which points no record exists at all. Exactly that layer comes from me. The regulatory and sanctions assessment comes from others.

This page is not advice on supervisory or sanctions law and is not a financial service. No funds run through me in any configuration.

Who decides what

In this area the division of roles matters more than anywhere else. So it comes first.

Three layers, three responsibilities Both

The Iranian layer — which transaction stands behind the money and which document evidences it — is mine. The regulatory layer — whether an institution may or must accept a transaction, which due diligence duties apply, how to challenge a measure — belongs to the firm admitted in the country concerned. The sanctions layer — whether a transaction is permitted at all, whether a licence is needed, whether a person is caught — belongs solely to sanctions counsel of the legal system in question.

Why the separation is drawn so strictly. Because an opinion on Iranian law derives its value precisely from not presuming to answer the other two questions along the way. Whoever promises all three layers from one hand delivers, in none of them, the reliability a compliance department needs.

Source of funds

The explanation is usually true. It is simply not evidenced — and that is a different thing.

What is actually required Both

What is required is not the assurance but the chain: the specific Iranian transaction, the registered document carrying it, and the path from the creation of the wealth to the account it sits in today. The typical sources are a registered sale of property, succession, a distribution of profit, a sale of company shares or professional income — each with its own documents and its own weak points.

The five places the chain breaks Iranian law

The certificate of inheritance names heirs, not assets. The family divided the estate informally before anyone thought about a bank. The price entered in the sale deed is below the real one. The registers — civil status, land, commercial, tax — do not speak to one another and share no common reference. And finally, the person has long since moved: the money surfaces where the transaction never was, years later, in a legal system that cannot look back into any of those registers.

What comes from me. Reconstruction of that chain from the Iranian registers and a written statement of what Iranian law makes of it — expressly including the points at which no record exists and none can be obtained. It is precisely that candour a compliance department takes seriously.

Identification and screening

Before a matter is accepted — and regardless of whether it is accepted.

What is checked Iranian law

Established from Iranian registry records: the client, the beneficial owner, the shareholders of any Iranian company involved, and the Iranian counterparties. The basis is civil status and registry files, gazette publications and documents, not self-declarations. The result is screened against the relevant sanctions lists and recorded in writing.

And the consequence that is not negotiable. If a person involved is on a sanctions list, the matter is not accepted — not conditionally, not deferred, not revisited later. That rule applies regardless of how the matter otherwise looks, and it is not up for discussion.

Name similarity Both

A recurring and solvable case: the name resembles that of a listed person, but the person is not that person. It can only be resolved with the Iranian identity documents — full civil status data, parentage, place and date of birth, earlier spellings of the name. Whether the clarification prevails before an authority or institution is decided by counsel admitted there; the material for it comes from me.

The file for the bank

An Iranian document does not work on its own. It has to be made readable — literally and legally.

What the file consists of Both

Of the originals or certified extracts obtained; of the certified translation; of the legalisation chain, because Iran is not a party to the Apostille Convention; and — the part usually missing — of a written explanation telling a European compliance department what each paper proves under Iranian law and what it does not. Without that explanation an Iranian registry extract is, to the recipient, a sheet with stamps.

Order in which it is built

  1. Establish which transaction is to be evidenced and which document actually carries it in Iran.
  2. Obtain the documents through colleagues in Iran; clear up discrepancies in names and dates early.
  3. Certified translation and the legalisation chain for the specific destination — the chain differs by recipient.
  4. Written explanation: what each document proves under Iranian law, where the limits lie, where no record exists.
  5. Handover to the firm admitted in the country, which runs the matter with the institution.

Account freeze in Europe

Two causes that look identical from outside — and legally have nothing to do with each other.

Prohibition or evidentiary problem Both

When a European bank freezes an account or refuses a transfer, the cause is not necessarily a legal prohibition. It may be a risk-based decision by the institution: its own view that the file is not sufficiently evidenced internally. From the customer’s side the two look identical. Legally they are not — and only one of them can be resolved with documents.

The honest limitation. Evidence can resolve the uncertainty behind a risk-based decision. It cannot compel a bank to accept business outside its risk appetite. Whoever promises otherwise is selling an expectation they cannot keep.

The division of work in the actual case The institution’s law

Correspondence with the institution, challenging a measure, proceeding against termination of the relationship and all banking and regulatory questions are run by the firm admitted in the country concerned. My task is the Iranian documentary position their submissions stand on — and the explanation that makes it intelligible to the compliance department.

Blocked funds and OFAC

Here the lead rests entirely with others. What I contribute is the record beneath it.

What is pursued in this area The institution’s law

Funds frozen at a US correspondent bank; applications for specific licences and for release; delisting from a sanctions list; and resolving mere name similarity. All of that is run by US-admitted attorneys from the network. The legal assessment — whether a transaction is permitted, whether a licence is required, whether a person is caught — rests with them. My contribution is factual: establishing those involved from the Iranian registers and screening them against the published lists, with the result in writing. What that result means in law is for sanctions counsel to assess.

My contribution. The Iranian record and documentary position their applications stand on: identity and civil status of those involved, title and registry position of the assets concerned, the chain of origin and the written classification under Iranian law — in the form the US firm can annex to its application.

Asset tracing

Not: what there might be. But: what is registered, to whom it belongs, and what of it is reachable.

What is established — and by what means Iranian law

Established from the registers provided for that purpose and within proceedings or under a power of attorney: real property, accounts, company shares, vehicles; along with encumbrances, attachments and restrictions on disposal. Equally relevant is what is economically attributable from an Iranian standpoint but not registered: unregistered purchase contracts, titles held through relatives, vaqf-bound values. Such positions can be legally material — they become visible only if someone looks for them.

The limit of the method. Enquiry is made solely by legally provided means — registry searches, court orders, documents. No covert investigation, no data gathering outside the proceedings, no promises about results. What cannot be established that way is reported as not established.
Limit. No sanctions determinations, no advice on supervisory or banking law, no participation in circumvention. No funds run through me in any configuration, and I am in no configuration a channel for assets. If a person involved is on a sanctions list, the matter is not accepted.

Enquiries concerning assets and banking

Outline the matter briefly by email and state what is to be achieved. You will receive an indication of which part falls to be settled under Iranian law and which part needs a firm admitted in the country concerned. Please do not send confidential documents in a first message.

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