SEYED Asadoollah Emamjomeh, an Iranian national behind a sprawling corporate network responsible for shipping hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian LPG and crude oil to foreign markets over recent years, has been sanctioned by the US Treasury.

The designations issued on Tuesday (April 22) by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, seek to curtail an opaque but expansive network of companies and vessels, including a 2024-built vessel, Tinos I (IMO: 9969821), which intended but failed to load cargo off the coast of Houston, last year.

The sanctions follow an extensive investigation into Emamjomeh’s network that is understood to have begun in the spring 2024, when Tinos I was on its maiden voyage to Houston with the intention of loading US LPG for sale to China.

Tinos I has been at anchor off Houston ever since without lifting cargo.

Meanwhile, the US investigation has identified an extensive network controlled by Emamjomeh and his son, UAE-based British and Iranian national Meisam Emamjomeh that has exported thousands of shipments of LPG from Iran to Pakistan and have conducted tens of millions of dollars in business on behalf of Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Co.

It is this network that the US Treasury claims has been a major source of revenue for the Iranian regime.

In addition to directly designating both Emamjomeh and his son, the Ofac sanctions have targeted a dozen individual companies controlled by Emamjomeh and Tinos I.

“Emamjomeh and his network sought to export thousands of shipments of LPG — including from the US — to evade US sanctions and generate revenue for Iran,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent on Tuesday.

On its face, Tinos I, a 2024-built gas carrier, was not an obvious target for sanctions-related enforcement. This is typically reserved for ageing tankers unlikely to ever approach US waters. But a closer look into the vessel’s owner reveals sprawling links to Iran’s petroleum sector and liquefied petroleum gas trades.

Tinos I is operated by Dubai-based Pearl Petrochemical FZE, owned by Emamjomeh.

A Lloyd’s List investigation published in 2023 detailed how people and companies in Emamjomeh’s orbit were linked with a fleet of ageing gas carriers that shipped hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian LPG.

Given Pearl Petrochemical’s indirect yet substantive links to Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical sectors, Tinos I’s voyage to Houston at a time when the US was tightening restrictions on Tehran caught the attention of Lloyd’s List, and an enquiry with US authorities for comment was made.

That is understood to have prompted the investigations into the vessel.

Pearl Petrochemical

The Tinos I saga is not the first time that Emamjomeh, who also has an interest in several Iranian companies that operate in the country’s energy and shipping sectors, has drawn attention from US regulators, making the VLGC’s arrival in Houston all the more bewildering.

While Pearl Petrochemical is based in the United Arab Emirates, a legal case in France between French banking giant BNP Paribas and the company heard evidence that US authorities had previously deemed Pearl as an Iranian entity.

Pearl’s legal dispute with BNPP is linked to a US investigation into the bank for sanctions violations that concluded in 2014 and ultimately cost it $8.9bn in penalties. Among the violations was a relationship with an unnamed UAE-based, Iran-controlled company.

Sources familiar with the matter identified the unnamed company as Caspian Petrochemicals, a Dubai-based entity controlled by Emamjomeh. According to the French court case and business registration documents from the UAE and the UK, Pearl Petrochemical is the succeeding entity of Caspian.

Links between people in Emamjomeh’s orbit and Caspian to Iranian gas trades were unveiled in the November 2023 Lloyd’s List investigation into the casualty of a 1972-built LPG carrier named White Purl (IMO: 7230666). The investigation revealed how the vessel was part of a fleet of a dozen-plus ageing gas carriers that were regularly engaged in Iranian LPG trades and linked through a complex web of Panama-based shell entities.

According to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data, White Purl was owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company from 1991 to 2012. Caspian Petrochemical then became the registered owner for a short period in 2012, after which registered ownership changed three more times. However, the vessel’s title registration documents showed that individuals linked with Caspian were still involved with the vessel in 2023 when it caught fire off Assaluyeh, Iran.

Caspian Petrochemical opened a UK entity in 2011. Company House filings show that the company’s secretary shut the UK establishment down in early December 2023, about two weeks after Lloyd’s List published its investigation into White Purl.

An Ofac licence

Lloyd’s List reported in September 2024 about Tinos I’s curious wait off Houston and reached out Pearl Petrochemical and Emamjomeh for comment regarding the vessel’s unusually long wait.

The company told Lloyd’s List at the time that it had received a licence from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control but did not specify whether it permitted Pearl to lift cargoes in the US or was narrower in scope.

Market sources told Lloyd’s List back then that the vessel was originally chartered by a major oil trader. Lloyd’s List approached that trader, but they declined to comment.

In his previous comments to Lloyd’s List in September, Emamjomeh said he resides in the UAE. Lloyd’s List enquired with Emamjomeh regarding his interests in three Iranian companies, in which public documents list him as the chairman: Parsa Fidar Paydar, an engineering firm; Nilgun Parsai Caspian, a ship agency; and Pasar Gas.

Emamjomeh said he only owned a 10% stake in those companies. There were two other individuals with the last name Emamjomeh on the board of Pasar Gas and Parsa Fidar Paydar, while one of them was a board member of Nilgun Parsai Caspian, the documents showed.

Parsa Fidar Paydar recently completed construction of an LPG export dolphin in the port of Siraf in Iran’s Bushehr province.

The US Treasury investigation confirms Lloyd’s List’s reporting and has concluded that Emamjomeh has owned and operated an LPG sales, transport and delivery network using multiple Iran and UAE-based companies for over a decade.

“Emamjomeh and his UAE-based company, Caspian Petrochemical are part of a network that has exported thousands of shipments of LPG from Iran to Pakistan and have conducted tens of millions of dollars in business on behalf of Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Co. (PGPICC),” explained an Ofac statement.

Ofac designated PGPICC in 2019 for being owned or controlled by Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Co on the basis that it provided financial support to Khatam al-Anbiya, the engineering conglomerate of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Until recently, Emamjomeh was also the owner of UAE-based Pearl Petrochemical, before passing ownership to Meisam in October 2024. Pearl is the beneficial owner of Tinos I which had been attempting to load US LPG from Houston in June 2024 for sale to China before it ran into trouble. Meisam acts as director of UK-based Worldwide LPG Ltd, while also serving on the board of directors of many of Emamjomeh’s Iran-based companies.

Other newbuildings sold

Tinos I was operated by Pearl under a sale-and-leaseback agreement with CSSC Shipping Hong Kong that was announced in October 2023. Publicly available registration documents show the title has recently been transferred to Tinos Maritime and Trading SA, a Panama-based company that was the bareboat-charterer of the vessel and is ultimately owned by Pearl.

The deal with CSSC included two other VLGC newbuildings that were delivered after Tinos I. Both appear to have been sold in late 2024 to Hong Kong-based operator Sinogas.

The VLGC Syros, now Gas Arcturus, was delivered in the summer of 2024 and was employed for a short period with the Neptune VLGC pool, but left it in October, a Neptune representative told Lloyd’s List last year. It appeared to have been anchored off Singapore between October and its sale came in December.

The third newbuilding, VLGC Astipalea, now Gas Vela (IMO: 9969845), appeared to have been sold upon delivery in December.

Sinogas did not respond to multiple emails seeking to confirm the acquisition, but Gas Vela appears on its fleet list. The fleet list also includes two vessels under the name Gas Aquarius (IMO: 9780005), one built in 2018, and one built in 2024, suggesting the latter may be a typo and is referring to Gas Arcturus (IMO: 9969833).

Emamjomeh also owns or controls nine additional LPG companies in Iran, including, reportedly, one company with a monopoly on the National Iranian Gas Company’s LPG deliveries. His companies include: Parsa Fidar Paydar Engineering and Technology Co, Nilgon Parsa Caspian Shipping Co, Arsa Gas Co, Pasar Gas Co, Petro Parsa Caspian Iranian Co, Pasar Gas Novin Trading Co, Parsa Salakh Qeshm Industrial Complex, Parsa Trabar Caspian International Transportation Co, and Parsa Trabar Persia International Transportation Co.