Sam Tsang/AFP/Getty
A vessel owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, known as IRISL. 
Iran‘s state-owned shipping company set up dozens of shady shell companies to skirt U.S. sanctions, prosecutors charged yesterday.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, or IRISL, has faced sanctions for years because of Iran’s weapons programs.
It used the companies to make $60 million in banned transactions through seven U.S. banks, Manhattan prosecutors charged yesterday.
“If sanctions are to mean anything, they must be enforced,” Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. said.
The banks, which include JPMorgan Chase and HSBC, were “not complicit in this at all,” Vance said.
