THE US blacklisted a sprawling network of nearly 150 vessels, entities and individuals on Wednesday, in what it said was its largest Iran-related action since reimposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic in 2018.

The Treasury Department issued 115 sanctions targeting a “vast shipping empire” controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of Ali Shamkhani, a top political adviser to Iran’s supreme leader and a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.

The State Department separately sanctioned 20 entities and 10 vessels involved in Iranian oil and petrochemical trades.

The younger Shamkhani was recently sanctioned by the EU, while his father was designated by the US in 2020. Ali Shamkhani was injured in an attempted assassination by Israel during the 12-day Israel-Iran war last month but survived.

A Bloomberg News investigation last year exposed how the younger Shamkhani’s network had become a key player in the export of Russian and Iranian oil, and established a hedge fund with offices in London, Dubai and Geneva to help manage the proceeds.

The US said Shamkhani’s network “exerts control over a significant portion of Iran’s crude oil exports, the proceeds of which substantially benefit his family and the Iranian regime”.

“The Shamkhani family’s shipping empire highlights how the Iranian regime elites leverage their positions to accrue massive wealth and fund the regime’s dangerous behaviour,” said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The network laundered billions in profits from the sale of Iranian and Russian crude oil and other refined products while obfuscating ties to the Shamkhani family, Iran and Russia, the treasury said.

“Hossein solely uses aliases when conducting network business which include ‘H’, ‘Hector’ and ‘Hugo Hayek’, the false name listed on his Dominica passport.

“The network’s fleet, which consists of both oil tankers and containerships, undergoes frequent changes in the operators and managers of each vessel to ensure that determining the ultimate responsibility for any particular vessel remains opaque and difficult to trace back to the Shamkhani family.”

Dozens of tankers and boxships

Combined, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control and the State Department designated 62 vessels, comprised of 22 boxships and 40 tankers, mostly oil and gas.

The latter, which include four asphalt tankers, two bunkering tankers and three liquefied petroleum gas carriers, total some 3.5m dwt in carrying capacity, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data.

Of the 22 containerships designated, 16 are currently operated by SeaLead, according to fleet data from Alphaliner, which lists SeaLead as the 13th-largest container shipping operator in the world. 

Fractal Shipping

Among the designated entities was Progwin Shipping, which Ofac identified as the successor of Fractal Shipping, and Progwin’s manager, Mathieu Philippe. Fractal was one of the first major players that emerged in Russian oil trades following the imposition of sanctions on Moscow’s crude and refined products in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

“Switzerland-based Progwin Shipping , formerly known as Fractal Shipping and managed by French and UK national Mathieu Alain Michel Philippe, has drawn public attention for the unusual speed at which it assembled an expansive fleet of ageing tankers, and for Progwin Shipping and Philippe’s willingness to exploit the high rates of return in shipping Russian oil, all for the benefit of Hossein’s network,” said treasury.

Fractal Shipping’s Dubai-based entity was sanctioned by the UK last year.

Also designated by the US on Wednesday were company formation agents and their directors.

“UAE-based G M C G Shipping LLC and Cyprus-based GMCG Ltd have incorporated and paid fees for front companies used by Hossein’s network, including Marshall Islands-based Neo Shipping Inc,” the treasury said.

“UAE-based International Shipping Bureau LLC has also incorporated several companies that operate within the Hossein network. UAE-based Thamoud Mohammed Muhsin al-Azzawi is the managing director of G M C G Shipping LLC. Panama-based Hector Varela de Leon founded Panama-based GMCG Holding Corp and currently serves as its director.”

State Department targets Chinese terminal

In addition to Ofac’s 115 designations, the State Department separately sanctioned 20 entities and 10 vessels.

Among them was Zhoushan Jinrun Petroleum Transfer Co, a crude oil and petroleum products terminal in Zhoushan port that the agency said, “demonstrated pattern of accepting Iranian crude oil and petroleum products, including from US-designated tankers”.

The designation of Zhoushan Jinrun marks the fourth time the US has targeted a Chinese terminal since commencing the “maximum pressure 2.0” campaign on Iran.