US hits prominent Turkish executive with Iran oil sanctions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is imposing sanctions on a prominent Turkish businessman reportedly close to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for violations of U.S. restrictions on the sales of Iranian oil. The Treasury Department announced Thursday it was penalizing Sitki Ayan and a number of companies he and his family control for facilitating the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars of Iranian oil for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Ayan and his firms have also laundered the proceeds of those sales, Treasury said. The sanctions include a freeze on any assets Ayan or the targeted companies may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing any business with them.