USA Confirms April Seizure of Tanker Carrying Iran Oil

The USA Department of Justice (DOJ) has confirmed the confiscation in April of a tanker carrying what it said was "contraband crude oil" from Iran.

Empire Navigation Inc.'s Suez Rajan Ltd. was transporting a 980,000-barrel, "multimillion-dollar shipment" of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a security force designated by Washington as a terrorist organization, the DOJ said in a press release Friday. The operator is based in Athens, Greece.

"This is the first-ever criminal resolution involving a company that violated sanctions by facilitating the illicit sale and transport of Iranian oil", read the media statement.

The Associated Press earlier reported the shipping company had pleaded guilty to smuggling Iranian petroleum and agreed to pay $2.4 million. Empire Navigation faces three years of probation under the plea deal, it said Thursday citing court documents it had seen. The District Court of Columbia's website shows the case, which had a filing date of August 30, has been unsealed but has yet to be displayed publicly.

"The newly unsealed court documents rely on satellite images, as well as documents, to show that the Suez Rajan sought to mask its loading of Iranian crude oil from one tanker by trying to instead claim the oil came from another", The Associated Press wrote.

The DOJ account of the case said, "In addition, pursuant to a deferred prosecution agreement and a seizure warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Empire Navigation, the operating company of the vessel carrying the contraband cargo, agreed to cooperate and transport the Iranian oil to the United States – an operation which has now concluded.

"Empire Navigation incurred the significant expenses associated with the vessel’s voyage to the United States".

The DOJ added the oil consignment is now the subject of a civil forfeiture suit in the same court. "The United States’ forfeiture complaint alleges that the oil aboard the vessel is subject to forfeiture based on U.S. terrorism and money laundering statutes", it said.

Besides Empire Navigation, "multiple entities affiliated with Iran’s IRGC and the IRGC-Qods Force (IRGC-QF)" participated in the scheme to covertly sell the oil to a customer overseas, the DOJ said citing the forfeiture complaint, not naming the destination country.

"Participants in the scheme attempted to disguise the origin of the oil using ship-to-ship transfers, false automatic identification system reporting, falsified documents and other means", the DOJ said. "The complaint further alleges that the charterer of the vessel used the U.S. financial system to facilitate the transportation of Iranian oil.

"The complaint further alleges that the oil constitutes the property of, or provided a 'source of influence' over, the IRGC and the IRGC-QF, both of which have been designated by the United States as foreign terrorist organizations, and that the oil facilitated money laundering. The documents allege that profits from oil sales support the IRGC’s full range of malign activities, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, support for terrorism and both domestic and international human rights abuses".

The USA Treasury has said smuggled oil supported the Quds force and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

Empire Navigation has not replied to a request for comment sent by Rigzone on the weekend.

Iranian state media Islamic Republic News Agency reported September 10, "Newly unsealed court papers publicly confirm the U.S. government has stolen nearly one million barrels of Iranian crude oil from the M/T Suez Rajan tanker.

"The seizure is at the center of a shadowy conflict playing out in the world’s ocean shipping corridors as the U.S. seeks to use economic sanctions to block Iran from exporting oil. The U.S. and its allies have been stealing Iranian oil cargoes since withdrawing from the nuclear deal known as the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] and reimposing sanctions on Iran in 2018".

USA non-partisan organization United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) started reporting on the transport of Iranian oil by Suez Rajan last year.

"The oil was destined for purchasers in China before UANI’s discovery and public intervention, which effectively stranded the cargo and denied Iran its expected revenue from this oil smuggling operation", UANI said in an update February 15, 2023.

Suez Rajan and the vessel Virgo that first carried the oil before a ship-to-ship transfer used several deceptive practices to hide the origin of the consignment including manipulation of Automatic Identification System data, UANI said in its reports.

To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com