U.S. Treasury Takes Aim at Iran's Shamkhani Shipping Network
The U.S. Treasury is once again taking aim at the network of Iranian "shadow fleet" industry leader Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of senior Iranian advisor Ali Shamkhani, who was killed in an airstrike in February. The Shamkhani shipping network has moved millions of barrels of oil for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and it is a primary target of Treasury's "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran's energy exports. In the latest round announced Tuesday, the department blacklisted nine vessels and more than a dozen companies and individuals linked to Shamkhani.
The Shamkhani network operates through reputable-looking front companies, many in the United Arab Emirates, where foreign interests intermingle in a lightly-regulated "free zone" business environment. In this new round of actions, Treasury sanctioned the holding company Oriel Group and a constellation of related Shamkhani affiliates, all based in the Emirates. These include Corplinx Consultancy; House of Shipping Investment FZCO; Meritron DMCC; Helmatic Consultancy DMCC; and Taylor Shipping FZCO.
Treasury also targeted more shadow-fleet vessels operated by the Shamkhani network, to include Aura (IMO 9274563), Horae (IMO 9413004), Versa (IMO 9379301), Anaya (IMO 9326885), Daphne V (IMO 9321677), Silvar (IMO 9291262), Cauveri (IMO 9282508), Bellaris (IMO 9332614), and Anika (IMO 9417464).
The new sanctions on the Shamkhani arrive just as Iran's state oil company is said to be shifting its trading and shipping operations back in-house, an adaptation to the high fatality rate among IRGC members who previously coordinated the gray-market trade. State-run news agency IRNA and Iranian outlet Tehran Times both claimed this week that the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will take back exclusive control over the sale of the nation's oil - a shift away from the informal sales network operated by the IRGC.
As an additional action, Treasury also sanctioned an Iranian oil-for-gold trading scheme that provided support for the government of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro (now under arrest in the U.S.). The department identified Iranian national Seyed Naiemaei Badroddin Moosavi as a facilitator for the IRGC's oil sales, the profits from which were used to underwrite Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, an IRGC proxy force. One such scheme involved shipping Iranian oil into Venezuela in exchange for gold from the Maduro regime. The gold would then be resold in overseas markets.
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Treasury identified two UAE-based companies, ACS Trading and Lotus Universal, as linked to Moosavi. An additional affiliated firm, ACS Global, is based in the Netherlands, the department said.
Top image: VesselFinder / Giwrgos Mertis