[6] According to the Congressional Research Service, in addition to the money locked up in foreign bank accounts, Iran's frozen assets include real estate and other property.
[7] Iran's assets were first frozen by U.S. president Jimmy Carter in 1979, after revolutionaries overthrew the U.S.-allied Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's administration and took American hostages.
[dubious – discuss] At the time of the 1979 revolution, the Pentagon re-sold some $400 million in Iranian military equipment already paid for by the deposed government, and the money was "placed in an escrow account".
However, in 2012, Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed, the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012, which specified that the judgment in the Peterson et al. v. Islamic Republic of Iran et al. would be subject to execution and also abolished Bank Markazi to the execution of judgment.
[14] For example, in October 2020, $1.4 billion of frozen cash were awarded in punitive and compensatory damages to the family of Robert Levinson after his abduction and presumed death.
For example, in September 2023, the United States granted Iran access to nearly $6 billion of frozen assets in South Korea as part of a prisoner exchange.