118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 6245
AN ACT
To require the Secretary of the Treasury to report on finan-
cial institutions’ involvement with officials of the Iranian
Government, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2
•HR 6245 EH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Holding Iranian Lead-2
ers Accountable Act of 2023’’. 3
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4
The Congress finds the following: 5
(1) Iran is characterized by high levels of offi-6
cial and institutional corruption, and substantial in-7
volvement by Iran’s security forces, particularly the 8
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in the 9
economy. 10
(2) The Department of Treasury in 2019 des-11
ignated the Islamic Republic of Iran’s financial sec-12
tor as a jurisdiction of primary money laundering 13
concern, concluding, ‘‘Iran has developed covert 14
methods for accessing the international financial sys-15
tem and pursuing its malign activities, including 16
misusing banks and exchange houses, operating pro-17
curement networks that utilize front or shell compa-18
nies, exploiting commercial shipping, and masking il-19
licit transactions using senior officials, including 20
those at the Central Bank of Iran (CBI).’’. 21
(3) In June 2019, the Financial Action Task 22
Force (FATF) urged all jurisdictions to require in-23
creased supervisory examination for branches and 24
subsidiaries of financial institutions based in Iran. 25
The FATF later called upon its members to intro-26 3
•HR 6245 EH
duce enhanced relevant reporting mechanisms or 1
systematic reporting of financial transactions, and 2
require increased external audit requirements, for fi-3
nancial groups with respect to any of their branches 4
and subsidiaries located in Iran. 5
(4) According to the State Department’s 6
‘‘Country Reports on Terrorism’’ in 2021, ‘‘Iran 7
continued to be the leading state sponsor of ter-8
rorism, facilitating a wide range of terrorist and 9
other illicit activities around the world. Regionally, 10
Iran supported acts of terrorism in Bahrain, Iraq, 11
Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen through proxies and 12
partner groups such as Hizballah and Hamas.’’. 13
SEC. 3. REPORT ON FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND ASSETS 14
CONNECTED TO CERTAIN IRANIAN OFFI-15
CIALS. 16
(a) F
INANCIALINSTITUTIONS AND ASSETSRE-17
PORT.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 19
after the date of the enactment of this Act, and 20
every 2 years thereafter, the President shall submit 21
a report to the appropriate Members of Congress 22
containing— 23
(A) the estimated total funds or assets 24
that are under direct or indirect control by each 25 4
•HR 6245 EH
of the natural persons described under sub-1
section (b), and a description of such funds or 2
assets, except that the President may limit cov-3
erage of the report to not fewer than 5 of such 4
natural persons in order to meet the submission 5
deadline described under this paragraph; 6
(B) a description of how such funds or as-7
sets were acquired, and how they have been 8
used or employed; 9
(C) a list of any non-Iranian financial in-10
stitutions that— 11
(i) maintain an account in connection 12
with funds or assets described in subpara-13
graph (A); or 14
(ii) knowingly provide significant fi-15
nancial services to a natural person cov-16
ered by the report; and 17
(D) a description of any illicit or corrupt 18
means employed to acquire or use such funds or 19
assets. 20
(2) E
XEMPTIONS.—The requirements described 21
under paragraph (1) may not be applied with re-22
spect to a natural person or a financial institution, 23
as the case may be, if the President determines: 24 5
•HR 6245 EH
(A) The funds or assets described under 1
subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) were ac-2
quired through legal or noncorrupt means. 3
(B) The natural person has agreed to pro-4
vide significant cooperation to the United 5
States for an important national security or law 6
enforcement purpose with respect to Iran. 7
(C) A financial institution that would oth-8
erwise be listed in the report required by para-9
graph (1) has agreed to— 10
(i) no longer maintain an account de-11
scribed under subparagraph (C)(i) of para-12
graph (1); 13
(ii) no longer provide significant fi-14
nancial services to a natural person cov-15
ered by the report; or 16
(iii) provide significant cooperation to 17
the United States for an important na-18
tional security or law enforcement purpose 19
with respect to Iran. 20
(3) W
AIVER.—The President may waive for up 21
to 1 year at a time any requirement under para-22
graph (1) with respect to a natural person or a fi-23
nancial institution after reporting in writing to the 24
appropriate Members of Congress that the waiver is 25 6
•HR 6245 EH
in the national interest of the United States, with a 1
detailed explanation of the reasons therefor. 2
(b) P
ERSONSDESCRIBED.—The natural persons de-3
scribed in this subsection are the following: 4
(1) The Supreme Leader of Iran. 5
(2) The President of Iran. 6
(3) The members of the Council of Guardians. 7
(4) The members of the Expediency Council. 8
(5) The Minister of Intelligence and Security. 9
(6) The Commander and the Deputy Com-10
mander of the IRGC. 11
(7) The Commander and the Deputy Com-12
mander of the IRGC Ground Forces. 13
(8) The Commander and the Deputy Com-14
mander of the IRGC Aerospace Force. 15
(9) The Commander and the Deputy Com-16
mander of the IRGC Navy. 17
(10) The Commander of the Basij-e- 18
Mostaz’afin. 19
(11) The Commander of the Qods Force. 20
(12) The Commander in Chief of the Police 21
Force. 22
(13) The head of the IRGC Joint Staff. 23
(14) The Commander of the IRGC Intelligence. 24 7
•HR 6245 EH
(15) The head of the IRGC Imam Hussein Uni-1
versity. 2
(16) The Supreme Leader’s Representative at 3
the IRGC. 4
(17) The Chief Executive Officer and the 5
Chairman of the IRGC Cooperative Foundation. 6
(18) The Commander of the Khatam-al-Anbia 7
Construction Head Quarter. 8
(19) The Chief Executive Officer of the Basij 9
Cooperative Foundation. 10
(20) The head of the Political Bureau of the 11
IRGC. 12
(21) The senior leadership as determined by the 13
President of the following groups: 14
(A) Hizballah. 15
(B) Hamas. 16
(C) Palestinian Islamic Jihad. 17
(D) Kata’ib Hizballah. 18
(c) F
ORM OFREPORT; PUBLICAVAILABILITY.— 19
(1) F
ORM.—The report required under sub-20
section (a) and any waiver under subsection (a)(3) 21
shall be submitted in unclassified form but may con-22
tain a classified annex. 23
(2) P
UBLIC AVAILABILITY .—The Secretary 24
shall make the unclassified portion of such report 25 8
•HR 6245 EH
public if the Secretary notifies the appropriate Mem-1
bers of Congress that the publication is in the na-2
tional interest of the United States and would sub-3
stantially promote— 4
(A) deterring or sanctioning official cor-5
ruption in Iran; 6
(B) holding natural persons or financial in-7
stitutions listed in the report accountable to the 8
people of Iran; 9
(C) combating money laundering or the fi-10
nancing of terrorism; or 11
(D) achieving any other strategic objective 12
with respect to the Government of Iran. 13
(3) F
ORMAT OF PUBLICLY AVAILABLE RE -14
PORTS.—If the Secretary makes the unclassified 15
portion of a report public pursuant to paragraph 16
(2), the Secretary shall make it available to the pub-17
lic on the website of the Department of the Treas-18
ury— 19
(A) in English, Farsi, Arabic, and Azeri; 20
and 21
(B) in precompressed, easily downloadable 22
versions that are made available in all appro-23
priate formats. 24 9
•HR 6245 EH
SEC. 4. RESTRICTIONS ON CERTAIN FINANCIAL INSTITU-1
TIONS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than the date that is 3
90 days after submitting a report described under section 4
3(a)(1), the Secretary shall undertake the following with 5
respect to a financial institution that is described under 6
section 3(a)(1)(C) and listed in the report: 7
(1) If the financial institution is a United 8
States financial institution, require the closure of 9
any account described in section 3(a)(1)(C)(i), and 10
prohibit the provision of significant financial serv-11
ices, directly or indirectly, to a natural person cov-12
ered by the report. 13
(2) If the financial institution is a foreign fi-14
nancial institution, actively seek the closure of any 15
account described in section 3(a)(1)(C)(i), and the 16
cessation of significant financial services to a natural 17
person covered by the report, using any existing au-18
thorities of the Secretary, as appropriate. 19
(b) S
USPENSION.—The Secretary may suspend the 20
application of subsection (a) with respect to a financial 21
institution upon reporting to the appropriate Members of 22
Congress that the suspension is in the national interest 23
of the United States, with a detailed explanation of the 24
reasons therefor. 25 10
•HR 6245 EH
SEC. 5. EXCEPTIONS FOR NATIONAL SECURITY; IMPLEMEN-1
TATION AUTHORITY. 2
The following activities shall be exempt from require-3
ments under sections 3 and 4: 4
(1) Any activity subject to the reporting re-5
quirements under title V of the National Security 6
Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3091 et seq.), or to any au-7
thorized intelligence activities of the United States. 8
(2) The admission of an alien to the United 9
States if such admission is necessary to comply with 10
United States obligations under the Agreement be-11
tween the United Nations and the United States of 12
America regarding the Headquarters of the United 13
Nations, signed at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and 14
entered into force November 21, 1947, or under the 15
Convention on Consular Relations, done at Vienna 16
April 24, 1963, and entered into force March 19, 17
1967, or other applicable international obligations of 18
the United States. 19
(3) The conduct or facilitation of a transaction 20
for the sale of agricultural commodities, food, medi-21
cine, or medical devices to Iran or for the provision 22
of humanitarian assistance to the people of Iran, in-23
cluding engaging in a financial transaction relating 24
to humanitarian assistance or for humanitarian pur-25
poses or transporting goods or services that are nec-26 11
•HR 6245 EH
essary to carry out operations relating to humani-1
tarian assistance or humanitarian purposes. 2
SEC. 6. SUNSET. 3
The provisions of this Act shall have no force or effect 4
on the earlier of— 5
(1) the date that is 5 years after the date of en-6
actment of this Act; or 7
(2) 30 days after the Secretary reports in writ-8
ing to the appropriate Members of Congress that— 9
(A) Iran is not a jurisdiction of primary 10
money laundering concern; or 11
(B) the Government of Iran is providing 12
significant cooperation to the United States for 13
the purpose of preventing acts of international 14
terrorism, or for the promotion of any other 15
strategic objective that is important to the na-16
tional interest of the United States, as specified 17
in the report by the Secretary. 18
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 19
For purposes of this Act: 20
(1) A
PPROPRIATE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS .— 21
The term ‘‘appropriate Members of Congress’’ 22
means the Speaker and Minority Leader of the 23
House of Representatives, the Majority Leader and 24
Minority Leader of the Senate, the Chairman and 25 12
•HR 6245 EH
Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial 1
Services of the House of Representatives, and the 2
Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee 3
on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Sen-4
ate. 5
(2) F
INANCIAL INSTITUTION.—The term ‘‘fi-6
nancial institution’’ means a United States financial 7
institution or a foreign financial institution. 8
(3) F
OREIGN FINANCIAL INSTITUTION .—The 9
term ‘‘foreign financial institution’’ has the meaning 10
given that term in section 561.308 of title 31, Code 11
of Federal Regulations. 12
(4) F
UNDS.—The term ‘‘funds’’ means— 13
(A) cash; 14
(B) equity; 15
(C) any other asset whose value is derived 16
from a contractual claim, including bank depos-17
its, bonds, stocks, a security as defined in sec-18
tion 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 (15 19
U.S.C. 77b(a)), or a security or an equity secu-20
rity as defined in section 3(a) of the Securities 21
Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78c(a)); and 22
(D) anything else that the Secretary deter-23
mines appropriate. 24 13
•HR 6245 EH
(5) KNOWINGLY.—The term ‘‘knowingly’’ with 1
respect to conduct, a circumstance, or a result, 2
means that a person has actual knowledge, or should 3
have known, of the conduct, the circumstance, or the 4
result. 5
(6) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 6
the Secretary of the Treasury. 7
(7) U
NITED STATES FINANCIAL INSTITUTION .— 8
The term ‘‘United States financial institution’’ has 9
the meaning given the term ‘‘U.S. financial institu-10
tion’’ under section 561.309 of title 31, Code of 11
Federal Regulations. 12
Passed the House of Representatives April 16, 2024.
Attest:
Clerk. 118
TH
CONGRESS
2
D
S
ESSION
H. R. 6245
AN ACT
To require the Secretary of the Treasury to report
on financial institutions’ involvement with offi-
cials of the Iranian Government, and for other
purposes.