World Bulletin / News Desk

A global network of private companies were blacklisted by the United States on Tuesday for providing revenue to the Iranian government's leadership and helping it evade the pinch from international sanctions on Tehran's nuclear program, the U.S. Treasury Department said.

The move targets 37 companies spread across the world, from Iran to Croatia, Germany and South Africa, and is the fourth action the United States has taken in the past week to sanction Iran's government and industries over its atomic program.

The sanctions prohibit U.S. citizens and companies from dealing with the firms. Any foreign financial institutions dealing with them risk getting cut off from the U.S. financial system.

The Treasury Department said the companies are governed by the Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order, or EIKO - a program set up by Iran's leadership to manage its commercial holdings - and earn tens of billions of dollars in profits. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was a leader of the 1979 revolution that established the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The companies take advantage of preferential loan rates from Iranian banks and sell and manage real estate holdings, including properties confiscated from Iranians who do not live in the country full-time, the Treasury Department said.

It said the firms have business links to Iran's government but usually have non-Iranian or Iranian expatriate owners to get around restrictions on the government's ability to do business in Europe and other parts of the world.

"While the Iranian government's leadership works to hide billions of dollars in corporate profits earned at the expense of the Iranian people, Treasury will continue exposing and acting against the regime's attempts to evade our sanctions and escape international isolation," Under Secretary of the Treasury David Cohen said in a statement announcing the sanctions.