UANI has completed an investigation into Iran’s systemic effort to evade international oil sanctions. UANI’s investigation focused on the Iranian regime’s elaborate and ongoing attempts to smuggle Iranian crude to recipient countries in contravention of the international sanctions regime imposed on Iran. UANI’s investigation is based on shipping information, news reports, whistleblowers, and interviews of persons with knowledge of the scheme.
This Iranian-sponsored Sanctions Fraud is designed to avoid the full impact of oil sanctions against Iran. Unfortunately, this Sanctions Fraud is perpetrated at least in part within the jurisdiction of the Emirate of Fujairah and its important port/bunkering hub, and with the assistance of a Dubai/United States-based criminal enterprise, Philtex Corporation and its affiliate the American Register of Shipping (“ARS”) that appears to predominantly operate in the Philippines. UANI has written to the appropriate heads of state respectfully requesting that they take immediate action to end this fraud and/or the parts of the fraud that occur within their respective jurisdictions. Click here to read that letter.
As international sanctions pressures increase, the Iranian regime seeks to evade these sanctions and ship illicit oil through an elaborate scheme to fraudulently classify, document and flag its oil tankers. This Sanctions Fraud enables Iran to engage in an oil smuggling operation primarily based out of the port of Fujairah, wherein sanctions waiver recipient countries are duped into buying additional Iranian oil mislabeled as Iraqi Special Blend to disguise its Iranian origins.
Iran’s Oil Shipping Scheme
Iran’s Smuggling Scheme