The United States has sanctioned the fintech network A7, calling it a transnational criminal organisation. Here is how the shadow system allegedly worked.

A7 was founded by sanctioned Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor with support from Promsvyazbank, a Russian state-owned bank already under US sanctions. Moscow promoted it as an alternative to Western payment rails after its invasion of Ukraine isolated Russia's economy.

The network says it processed 1,500 to 2,000 transactions a day, handling Rbs7.5 trillion — about $91.5 billion — in ten months. According to the US Treasury, its subagents formed the core of a sanctions-evasion and money-laundering structure used by Russian illicit finance and, allegedly, Iran and its proxy groups.

The new US measures add a proposed Financial Crimes Enforcement Network rule that would block the transmittal of funds involving A7's subagent network. The EU and UK had already sanctioned A7.

Sanctions work by making the plumbing unusable. The open question is whether A7's users simply build new pipes.