The U.S. Treasury designated the Russia-linked A7 payments network as a significant transnational criminal organization under Operation Economic Outcast, citing Iranian sanctions evasion, according to the Treasury's Oct. 1 press release. The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, also proposed barring covered U.S. institutions, including banks, money-services businesses, securities and commodities intermediaries, mutual funds and casinos, from processing payments in traditional currencies or cryptocurrencies involving identified A7 sub-agents, and issued a detection alert.