Ofac sanctions Iranian military-linked shipping network exposed in leaked documents
- US blacklists 15 entities, one individual, a panamax tanker and a floating storage tanker linked with Sepehr Energy, the ‘main commercial affiliate’ of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff
- Most of the entities designated were exposed in a trove of recently leaked emails
- Designations target players across the supply chain of Iranian oil shipments, from fronts for buyers and sellers to cargo surveyors and a port agent
The US has blacklisted a multi-jurisdictional network it accused of shipping Iranian oil on behalf of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff. Nearly all of the entities designated on Tuesday appeared in a trove of recently leaked documents
THE US imposed fresh sanctions on Tuesday targeting a network it said shipped oil on behalf of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff and operated in “virtually every aspect of Iran’s illicit international oil trade”.
The designations targeted 18 entities, including one individual, 15 companies in multiple jurisdictions, and two oil tankers: Cameroon-flagged floating storage tanker Balu (IMO: 9235244) and Panama-flagged panamax Roc (IMO: 9275660). The sanctions were aimed at firms across the supply chain of Iranian oil shipments, including front companies, a port agent and cargo surveyors that helped facilitate the shipments.
“Today’s action underscores our continued focus on intensifying pressure on every aspect of Iran’s oil trade, which the regime uses to fund its dangerous and destabilising activities,” said treasury secretary Scott Bessent.
The shipments were facilitated by Sepehr Energy, an Iranian trader the US says is the “main commercial affiliate of AFGS”. Sepehr was blacklisted by Ofac in November 2023.
Among those designated on Tuesday are entities Ofac said acted as intermediaries between Sepehr Energy and the “teapot” refineries in China’s Shandong province.
“Other companies — typically small agencies with generic or non-descript stated business purposes — have served as the middlemen between Sepehr Energy and Shandong’s teapot refineries by acting as the purchasers of the oil,” said Ofac.
“In early 2024, Hong Kong-based companies Metaone Trading Limited, South Sea Energy Limited, Continental Sinoil Group Limited, Winso Trading Limited and Singapore-based Oriental Apple Company PTE Ltd collectively took delivery of millions of barrels of Iranian oil from Sepehr Energy front Xin Rui Ji, likely as representatives of the small, independent teapot refineries based near Qingdao Port area in Shandong province.”
Claims of misidentification
Most of the entities designated on Tuesday were exposed recently in a trove of leaked emails that appear to have originated from Sepehr Energy and were uploaded to Iranian dissident website WikiIran.
The leaked documents also contained an email from two Iranian nationals designated by Ofac in 2023 in connection with Sepehr, objecting to their designation and asking Ofac to remove it.
The email was sent to Ofac in December 2023 and was forwarded to an address associated with Sepehr in March 2024, the leaked documents show.
The two nationals, who co-signed the letter, claimed that Sepehr Energy Jahan was “entirely unrelated” to AFGS and that perhaps Ofac had mixed them up with a similarly named company. That the correspondence was in a trove of thousands of emails detailing Iranian oil shipments suggest that no such mix up took place.
