Companies Rewarded for Defying Sanctions

Despite publicly discouraging companies from investing in Iran, the U.S. government has awarded more than $107 billion to companies doing business in the country since 2000, The New York Times reports. In fact, nearly $15 billion has been given to businesses who made large investments in Iran’s oil sector, in defiance of U.S. laws that prohibit doing business with the energy industry. That industry makes major cash for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which oversees Iran’s nuclear program. The auto industry, which the Times found companies investing in, is also tied to the Guard. One provided container ship motors to a state-owned company the U.S. has blacklisted since it was caught smuggling military supplies. Over the past few months, many companies have pulled out of Iran as the U.S. pushes for more sanctions with the U.N. But 49 of the 74 companies who did business with both the U.S. and Iran, the Times reports, continue to do so and don’t plan on leaving.