The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 10 individuals and entities across multiple jurisdictions over alleged weapons procurement for Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, known as MODAFL. Among those targeted: Pakistani businessman Wasim Pasha Tajammal, chairman of private defense company Cavalier Group, and three of his companies. The move puts the US financial system’s power to isolate people and businesses on display, while the allegations against Tajammal remain the Treasury’s claims.
The Sanctions Apparatus
The Treasury alleged that Tajammal and Cavalier Group acted as third-party intermediaries for MODAFL, and that Tajammal used professional contacts to help Iran procure and distribute weapons. It also alleged he provided, or attempted to provide, financial, material or technological support, or goods and services, to the organization. The announcement offered no further details about the transactions behind those allegations.
MODAFL, according to the Treasury, oversees weapons research, production and acquisition for Iran’s armed forces. The department said the ministry oversees organizations involved in developing Iran’s ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles. One side is a state ministry directing weapons work; on the other, Washington’s sanctions authority threatens access to its financial system for those it accuses of supporting that work.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: “Under Operation Economic Outcast, Treasury will continue to target and disrupt those who provide material, technological, or financial support that allows the Iranian regime to sustain its terrorist enterprise. Treasury will not tolerate any support to the regime and will continue to identify, expose, and isolate Iran’s enablers.” The message is plain: identify, expose, isolate.
Bessent announced Operation Economic Outcast on August 24, 2026. Officials dubbed it “Economic D-Day,” and the operation aims to sever the remaining economic lifelines sustaining the Iranian regime. The Treasury said it had mapped networks, facilitators and financial channels Iran uses to smuggle oil, evade sanctions and fund terrorism. Those are the department’s characterizations; it presented the campaign as an effort to cut off revenue and support.
Companies Across Borders
Tajammal is the majority shareholder and CEO of Cavalier Dynamics Private Limited in Pakistan, a director of Cavalier Dynamics for Technologies Company in Saudi Arabia, and a director and sole shareholder of Cavalier Dynamics Teknoloji Ticaret Anonim Sirketi in Turkey. The Pakistani firm wholly owns the Saudi company. The Treasury said it coordinated its action against the Saudi Arabia-based company with Saudi authorities and partners, illustrating how governments are working together on sanctions.
The Treasury said it was working with partners across the US government, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Gulf countries and others to target sources of what it called the regime’s illicit revenue. It warned that entities facilitating money laundering or sanctions evasion on Iran’s behalf risk losing access to the US financial system, and highlighted the danger of secondary sanctions for those continuing to do business with the Iranian regime. It also said it would accelerate US enforcement efforts. The warning reaches beyond the named companies: others weighing business with Iran face the same threat.
Cavalier Group describes itself on its website as a prominent defense company in Pakistan’s private sector and calls itself Pakistan’s “only multi-domain defense company.” The company says it aims to provide locally developed critical defense solutions to Pakistan’s armed forces and works with allied countries and partners worldwide. In a message, Tajammal says the company operates across land, air, information technology and cyber domains.
The company lists combat vehicles, small arms, ballistic protection equipment, tactical gear, drones, system automation and cybersecurity solutions among its products and services. Its public profile centers on supplying armed forces; the Treasury’s case rests on an alleged role in supplying Iran’s defense ministry. Washington is wielding its own cross-border economic authority, with exclusion from the US financial system as the threat.