Iran's Mahan Air has acquired nine large commercial aircraft worth over $300 million in defiance of international sanctions.  Mahan Air, which has been sanctioned by the United States and European Union for its ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is suspected of using Iraq's Al-Naser Airlines as a front to buy the aircraft from Europe.  The European companies involved were apparently unaware of the final destination of the airplanes.  The U.S. Treasury Department has implicated Mahan Air in sending advisers and weapons to Syria and Yemen on behalf of the IRGC's Qod's Force.  The nine aircraft acquired are used commercial jets manufactured between 2001 and 2009: eight Airbus A340s and one Airbus A320. 

The Justice Department has charged four companies and five individuals for participating in an international network that illegally procured $24 million in controlled goods to end-users in Iran. According to a 24-count federal indictment unsealed on April 17, the procurement network conspired to export sensitive U.S.-origin electronic components with military applications to Iran via companies in Taiwan and Turkey, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Charges were brought against Bahram Mechanic, Tooraj Faridi, and Smart Power Systems, of Houston, Texas; Khosrow Afghani of Los Angeles, California; Arthur Shyu and the Hosoda Taiwan Limited Corporation, in Taiwan; Matin Sadeghi and Golsad Istanbul Trading Ltd., in Turkey; and the Faratel Corporation, in Iran.

A $1.45 billion agreement between Commerzbank AG and the U.S. government to settle charges that the German bank had violated U.S. sanctions on doing business with Iran and Sudan was approved by a federal judge on April 3.  The federal government agreed to defer prosecution for three years in exchange for penalties paid to the Manhattan District Attorney's office, the Federal Reserve, and the Treasury Department.  If Commerzbank abides by the terms of the agreement, after three years prosecutors will ask that the charges be dropped.  The bank conceded the allegations, which included the processing of more than $250 million in transactions for Iranian and Sudanese entities. 

The European Union intends to re-impose sanctions on 40 Iranian shipping firms linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), Iran's national shipping line.  In January, the E.U.'s General Court had struck down the sanctions, ruling that the European Union had not provided sufficient evidence linking IRISL to nuclear proliferation.