U.S. Exposes Iranian Attempts to Evade Oil Sanctions

U.S. Exposes Iranian Attempts to Evade Oil Sanctions

Washington, 9 September 2013 - The U.S. Treasury Department has identified a network of six individuals and four businesses as subject to sanctions for attempting to evade oil sanctions placed on Iran’s government.

The actions, announced in a September 6 news release, are part of ongoing U.S. efforts to prevent sanctions evasion by individuals and companies acting on behalf of the Iranian government.

“Our sanctions on Iran’s oil sales are a critically important component of maintaining pressure on the Iranian government, and we will not allow Iran to relieve that pressure through evasion and circumvention,” said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. “We will continue to target those individuals and entities that devise schemes to evade our sanctions.”

Iran’s government relies on front companies, financial institutions and businessmen willing to engage in deceptive transactions to conceal the direct involvement of the government and its instrumentalities, such as the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO) Sarl.

The latest action targets the network of Seyed Seyyedi, an Iranian businessman and the director of Sima General Trading, an entity previously sanctioned by the Treasury Department; a network of companies based in the United Arab Emirates that Seyyedi controls; and representatives of NIOC and NICO based in the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

Seyed Seyyedi was identified for acting on behalf of various Iranian government entities and front companies, including NIOC and NICO, as well as Sima General Trading. The Treasury Department previously identified Sima General Trading in March 2013 for its role in the sanctions-evasion scheme being carried out by the Greek businessman Dimitris Cambis.

Seyyedi’s Sima General Trading helped finance a Cambis front company to purchase oil tankers while disguising the fact that the tankers were being purchased on behalf of the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC). Cambis’ front companies were used to deceive the international business community by obscuring the Iranian ownership of ships capable of carrying roughly $200 million worth of oil per shipment.

The Treasury Department also identified the U.A.E.-based KASB International LLC, Petro Royal FZE and AA Energy FZCO, each of which is controlled by Seyyedi and used to assist NICO and NICO front companies, such as Sima General Trading, in its sanctions-evasion schemes.

In addition to Seyed Seyyedi, the Treasury Department identified several other persons and entities for their links to Iran’s operations to evade oil sanctions:

• Swiss Management Services Sarl is a Swiss company controlled by NICO Sarl and used by NICO to continue its operations on behalf of Iran following multiple U.S. sanctions actions targeting NICO and NICO Sarl. Mohmmad Moinie is Switzerland-based NICO Sarl’s commercial director.

• Reza Parsaei is a director for NIOC International Affairs (London) Ltd., which was identified as an Iranian government entity in July 2010. Parsaei has involved himself in a scheme to deceptively import Iranian oil into the European Union. Parsaei also coordinates closely with another director for NIOC International Affairs (London) Ltd., Seyyed Mohamad Ali Khatibi Tabatabaei. Seyed Mohaddes and Mohammed Ziracchian Zadeh act as directors of the Iranian Oil Company (U.K.) Ltd., which was also identified as an Iranian government entity in July 2010.

Each of the individuals and companies sanctioned September 6 was identified under a U.S. executive order that blocks the property of Iran’s government, including that of individuals and entities identified as acting on behalf of it. The order also generally prohibits transactions by U.S. persons or through the United States with any of these entities and blocks any U.S. assets they may have. Foreign persons and financial institutions that facilitate transactions for such persons or materially support them may also be exposed to sanctions.

For more information on these actions, see the Treasury Department news release.

ENDS

© Scoop Media