UANI Commends U.S. Treasury for Sanctioning Four Ghost Fleet Vessels
(New York, N.Y.) — United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Chief of Staff Claire Jungman issued the following statement today after the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two companies and their associated vessels for complicity in supporting U.S.-sanctioned Iran trade. The entities are Hong Kong-based Cielo Maritime Limited and its vessel MEHLE (IMO: 9191711), and UAE-based Global Tech Marine Services Inc. and its vessels SINCERE 02 (IMO: 9226011), MOLECULE (IMO: 9209300) and FORTUNE GALAXY (IMO: 9257010). Each of the vessels – now blocked assets – has transported Iranian commodities in support of Sa’id al-Jamal, a financial facilitator for both the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Iran-backed Houthi militant group.
Jungman stated:
“We applaud Treasury for targeting these four vessels, all members of UANI’s ‘Ghost Armada’ that is responsible for shipping 1.36 billion barrels of oil since the start of the Biden Administration – worth in the region of $90 billion. UANI has long called for the enforcement of existing sanctions laws to be applied to the Ghost Armada in particular, without which the regime would lose its oil-exporting life-blood. However, while this is a necessary and long overdue step, there remain several hundred unsanctioned vessels conducting similar illicit activities.”
MOLECULE was identified by UANI as a facilitator of Iranian oil trade in April 2021, while SINCERE, MEHLE, and FORTUNE GALAXY were added to UANI’s Ghost Armada in 2023. As of today, there are more than 300 vessels still listed and warranting OFAC review for potential sanctions. As recently disclosed by UANI in its 2023 Ship Tracking Annual Review, Iran’s oil exports increased by 27% from 2022 to 2023, with four in every five barrels going to China. As noted in today’s OFAC announcement, Iranian-origin commodities – especially petroleum products – are commonly disguised, through “rebranding” and – as occurred in the cases of SINCERE and MEHLE – forgeries of shipping documents.
To read UANI’s “Ghost Armada” resource and database, click here.
To read UANI’s 2023 Tanker Tracking Year Review, click here.
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