Israeli-born oligarch runs $14 billion Russian cash network tied to Iran and Hamas

Ilan Shor, a 39-year-old Israeli citizen born in Tel Aviv and raised in Moldova, founded the payments company A7 in 2024, holding a 51 % stake while the Russian state-owned Promsvyazbank owns the remainder. Between November 2024 and July 2025 the firm processed at least 283 tons of Russian banknotes, valued at more than $14 billion, by moving cash from Moscow’s Sadovod Market through numbered bags to a processing centre and then into offshore accounts that pay foreign suppliers, especially in China.

U.S. Treasury sanctions announced on October 1 designated A7 a significant transnational criminal organization and accused it of supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hamas, and other sanctioned entities, linking it to Iran’s Nobitex exchange and North Korean crypto hacks. Shor, previously sentenced for a $1 billion banking fraud in Moldova and currently wanted there, has been operating from Russia under Kremlin patronage, presenting A7’s performance to President Vladimir Putin in September 2025. The story coincides with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the country to prepare for possible sanctions, though he has not endorsed A7’s methods.