US imposes sanctions on Turkish bank, prompting legal threat

By Al Jazeera Staff and AFP. Published On 5 Sep 20265 Sep 2026.

Key points

• As Washington seeks to economically isolate Tehran, the United States Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on a Turkish bank and its subsidiaries over alleged ties to Iran.
• US Ambassador to Turkiye Tom Barrack remarked on Saturday that it would be a mistake for Turkish office-holders "to read narrow measure as a judgement upon Turkiye".
• Washington alleged the bank "was established for the purpose of enabling Iran's rahbar network to transfer oil revenues from China to Turkey" using gold and cash.
• Golden Global Bank responded on Friday, saying it fulfilled all local and international banking compliance rules and would take legal action against the US-imposed sanctions.
• There are no transactions conducted by Golden Global Bank that could substantiate the claims created by the US, the bank stated in a news release.

For context, the Treasury Department accused Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi (Golden Global Bank) on Friday of facilitating "tens of millions of dollars' worth of transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force" and providing the Iranian administration with banking access to move its funds internationally.

"We will exercise all our rights of objection and legal recourse in the most effective manner and will take the necessary actions at the earliest against these allegations and the decision, " the Turkish bank continued.

"Financial institutions continue to find out the hard way that we are serious about Operation Economic Outcast, " remarked Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in an official note published by the department on Friday.

In practice, the sanctions place the bank and its two subsidiaries on the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)'s Specially Designated Nationals list, cutting off access to the US financial system.

For context, the bank remarked individuals and entities named in the OFAC decision "have never been and are not currently customers" of Golden Global.

"The health of the Turkish financial system is not in question; the conduct of one institution was, " Barrack remarked on X.

Last week, the US took steps towards severing the UAE operations of Egypt's second-largest bank from financial access after accusing it of processing transactions for firms linked to Iran's shadow-banking system.

As it ramps up its economic campaign against Tehran, bessent remarked on Tuesday on the sidelines of a G20 summit that Washington would probable announce a bank sanction this week and another next week.

For now, US imposes sanctions on Turkish bank, prompting legal threat remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.