AIB chairman David Hodgkinson and the finance minister’s Nama adviser Michael Geoghegan are heavily referenced in an investigation into HSBC’s concealing of Iranian banks transactions from American authorities.

The Obama administration today slapped new sanctions on several affiliates of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, targeting one person and four companies for penalties over their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction.

The Bush administration has been quietly tracking people suspected of bankrolling terrorism through a secret programme that gives the US government access to a massive data base of international financial transactions.