U.S. Has Seized 1 Million Barrels Of Iranian Oil En Route To China

The US seized illegal cargo from the ship Suez Rajan in April, which was reportedly being sold to China by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Suez Rajan Ltd., the vessel’s owner, entered a guilty plea to conspiring to break the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by smuggling Iranian crude oil that had been sanctioned on April 19. The business consented to a plea deal that included a $2.4 million fine and three years of corporate probation.

The Suez Rajan’s operating firm, the Greek shipper Empire Navigation, promised to cooperate and deliver the Iranian oil to the US at its own expense, which was later accomplished. The contraband cargo is now the subject of a civil forfeiture action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The US’ forfeiture complaint alleges that the oil aboard the vessel is subject to forfeiture based on U.S. terrorism and money laundering statutes.

The prosecution claimed that multiple organizations connected to the Quds Force and the IRGC of Iran sold and shipped Iranian oil to China in secret. They are accused of using techniques including ship-to-ship transfers to conceal the source of the oil as well as hiding the positions and identities of the involved vessels through fraudulent reporting and fictitious documentation. The charterer of the ship manipulated the banking system in the United States to make the transit of the oil possible.

Iran detained two tankers in late April, just after the Suez Rajan left for the United States: the Advantage Sweet, flying the Marshall Islands flag and sailing in the Gulf of Oman for the United States, and the Niovi, owned by Greece and sailing from Dubai to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. Navy denounced Iran for “continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters.”

The IRGC’s naval arm’s top commander issued a warning against anyone offloading the Suez Rajan the same month, and Iranian state media connected recent seizures to the fate of the cargo. The United States amended its cautionary statement for shipping passing through the Middle East late on September 6.