DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Greek shipping company has pleaded guilty to sanctioned smuggling of crude oil from Iran and agreed to pay a $2.4 million fine, according to newly unsealed U.S. court documents seen by the court on Thursday. ‘Associated Press.
The now public case against Empire Navigation, which faces three years of probation under the plea deal, marks the first public acknowledgment by US prosecutors that America seized approximately 1 million barrels of oil from the tanker Suez Rajan.
The saga surrounding the ship has further heightened tensions between Washington and Iran, even as they work to an exchange of billions of Iranian assets frozen in South Korea for the release of five Americans of Iranian origin detained in Tehran. Court filings have also shed light on the secretive world of Iranian crude oil smuggling in the face of Western sanctions since the failed 2015 nuclear deal – an operation that has only escalated over the years. This year.
The United States and its allies have been seizing Iranian oil shipments since 2019. This has led to a series of attacks in the Middle East attributed to the Islamic Republic, as well as seizures of ships by Iranian military and paramilitary forces that threaten global shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. , the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes.
Attention began to focus on the Suez Rajan in February 2022, when the group United Against Nuclear Iran said it suspected the tanker was carrying oil from the Iranian island of Khargh, its main oil distribution terminal in the Persian Gulf. Satellite photos and expedition data analyzed at the time by the AP supported this claim.
Newly unsealed court documents rely on satellite imagery, as well as documents, to show that the Suez Rajan sought to hide its cargo of Iranian crude oil from a tanker by trying to pretend the oil came from another.
For months the ship lay in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Singapore before suddenly heading for the Texas coast without explanation. The vessel discharged its cargo onto another tanker, who spilled his oil in Houston in recent days. Court documents viewed on Thursday confirm that the US government seized the oil.
Empire Navigation lawyer Apostolos Tourkantonis pleaded guilty to a single charge of violating Iran sanctions. Empire, based in Athens, Greece, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.
The US Treasury said proceeds from Iranian oil smuggling support the Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards expeditionary unit that operates across the Middle East. The Guard is believed to be closely involved in this trade, involving hundreds of ships that attempt to conceal their movements and may conceal their ownership through foreign front companies.
But Suez Rajan’s case was unique at the time of the transfer as he was owned by Los Angeles-based private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management. This likely gave US prosecutors an advantage in pursuing this case. Oaktree, which repeatedly declined to discuss the deal, sold the entire ship to Empire in late May.
Mark Wallace, former US ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, who heads United Against Nuclear Iran, praised Empire Navigation for agreeing to the request. He described Iranian oil smuggling as a “mafia-like” operation and urged other countries to abandon the trade.
“They faced Iranian assassination threats in Greece,” Wallace told the AP. “They took the exit ramp to leave the crowd.”
Wallace declined to give further details, and US court documents offered no details of the alleged threat. However, the delay in offloading the Suez Rajan’s cargo had also become a political issue for the Biden administration, as the ship had been sitting in the Gulf of Mexico for months, possibly because companies were worried about it. the Iranian threat.
Since the Suez Rajan headed for America, Iran seized two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuzincluding one carrying cargo for the major American oil company Chevron Corp. In July, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards’ naval wing threatened further action against anyone unloading the Suez Rajan, with state media linking recent seizures to the fate of the cargo.
Iran continued to make threats over the seizure and summoned a Swiss diplomat to Tehran to express its anger. Switzerland has watched over American interests in Iran since the takeover of the American embassy and the hostage crisis in 1979.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United States Navy has steadily increased its presence in recent weeks in the Middle East, sending the USS Bataan, carrying troops and aircraft through the Strait of Hormuz and considering send armed personnel aboard commercial vessels crossing the strait to prevent Iran from seizing additional ships.
On Wednesday evening, the United States updated its warning to shippers traveling through the Middle East, saying: “Commercial vessels transiting the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman continue to be unlawfully boarded and detained or seized by Iranian forces. »
This year, Iranian oil exports have mostly topped 1 million barrels a day despite US sanctions, according to commodity data firm Kpler. In May and June, it exceeded 1.5 million barrels per day, with figures in August standing at 1.4 million barrels per day, according to data from Kpler. China is seen as a major buyer of Iranian oil, likely at a greatly discounted price.
“Justice has been served,” Wallace said. “At the same time, there needs to be a serious policy review on why it took so long and why 300 ships are doing the same thing.”
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