THE UK sanctions watchdog has warned customers to watch out for fake certificates of origin disguising Russian oil shipments to flout the G7 price cap.

HM Treasury’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation advised UK entities on how to spot red flags to avoid breaching sanctions rules.

“Entities involved in the trade of Russian oil and oil products can use fabricated or falsified [COs] that claim Russian oil and oil products are of non-Russian origin,” OFSI said.

“This can be combined with other behaviours indicating evasion or circumvention of the oil price cap including, for example, the use of falsified attestations, transaction and shipping documentation and/or vessel voyage irregularities.

“This could lead to UK services inadvertently being used to support non-price cap compliant transactions.”

Red flags include COs listing a country or outer port limits of a country that does not normally produce or export oil or oil products, or in volumes that don’t correspond with previous production or export metrics for that country.

OFSI warned companies to look out for when vessel tracking suggests Russian origin but the CO does not, and for AIS manipulation and suspicious ship-to-ship transfers.

Multiple versions of a CO for a given shipment with inconsistent information on companies involved, product or contract details were another red flag, as were multiple shipments with the exact same details.

Alarm bells should also ring when a new company with complex or obscure ownership structures has started to issue COs in locations known for STS transfers, or when the company issuing the CO does not respond to requests for further information.

OFSI urged companies to do their due diligence of counterparties, verify information on COs and assess the risks of COs that appeared incomplete, inconsistent or contradictory to previously shared or public information.

They should contact relevant national authorities for help with this, OFSI added.

Companies can report suspected breaches here.

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