Report: New Zealand Insurer Linked to Iranian Dark Fleet Tankers

 

A New Zealand insurer is under investigation for providing insurance for Iranian dark fleet tankers Reuters reveals in a new exposé. The report suggests that Maritime Mutual, headquartered in Auckland, has insured tankers which have carried at least $18 billion worth of Iranian oil since 2018.

New Zealand's government announced earlier this month that it would re-impose the United Nations Sanctions (Iran) Regulations 2025, following the UN Security Council vote effective October 18. Foreign Minister Winston Peters said they would introduce a range of restrictions including an asset freeze and travel bans for sanctioned persons, import and export bans on certain nuclear and military goods, and a duty on New Zealanders to exercise vigilance in dealings with Iran. New?Zealand will also be introducing a compulsory registration scheme for New Zealanders who intend to do business with Iran, which comes into effect on February 1, 2026.

Maritime Mutual has “categorically denied” the allegations, claiming it has a zero-tolerance policy toward violations, and that it operates under “rigorous compliance standards designed to ensure full adherence to all applicable laws.” The New Zealand police's Financial Crime Group searched the offices of Maritime Mutual in Christchurch and Auckland on October 16, although this was declared to be in connection with breaches of Russia-related sanctions, and the company's website currently carries a banner saying the company “is not licensed to carry on insurance business in New Zealand, and that it is not able to underwrite insurance for persons resident in New Zealand.”

Maritime Mutual claims to have insured 7,102 vessels in 2023, and over 23 million gross tonnage, with re-insurance cover from Aon, Atrium, Lockton, Hannover and Lloyds Syndicates. It maintains manager correspondents in Shanghai, Singapore, Vanuatu, Phnom Penn and in the DMCC Dubai. Unusually, Maritime Mutual does not routinely provide details of which ships it insures to the likes of S&P Global Market Intelligence and Lloyd's List Intelligence.

A standard line in police investigation of sanctions breaches is fraudulent misrepresentation, in which ship operators present insurance certification at ports, in order to secure entry, bunkering and services, but which when scrutinized proves to be forged. This line of inquiry will no doubt examine the credentials of Shiraz Marine, which claims to represent Maritime Mutual and is based in Amir Jabir Boulevard, Shiraz, to examine if insurance certification presented in its name have been forged. But contrary to implications that it could have been defrauded, Maritime Mutual appears to have enjoyed healthy average annual revenue growth of 41 percent between 2019 and 2024, up from $14 million in 2018 to $108 in 2024.

The Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air has discovered that of 231 vessels insured by Maritime Mutual over a period in early 2025, 130 were carrying energy products from Iran or Russia, and that on average 30 vessels a day that were insured by Maritime Mutual were carrying either Iranian or Russian oil. In a review using Lloyds List data, Reuters identified that 97 tankers subject to sanctions had Maritime Mutual insurance cover on the day its review was conducted. Three people contacted by Reuters in its thorough investigation commented that most of the Maritime Mutual dark fleet insurance underwriting activity is carried out in the Dubai office based in the DMCC, where many sanctioned dark fleet front companies also have offices.

Maritime Mutual appears to be a family owned and managed company, founded 20 years ago by British citizen Paul Rankin. If the United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) were to investigate the role played in breaking Iran sanctions by British citizens employed in Maritime Mutual, which OFSI has not declared it is doing, it would represent a first, as OFSI has not been minded to levy an enforcement penalty on anyone in connection with breaches of sanctions against Iran since details of enforcement actions began to be posted in 2019.