The maritime traffic monitoring service TankerTrackers.com announced that the ship which Iranian media claimed ran aground in the Strait of Hormuz after using the ‘US-proposed route’ has actually been stuck at the same spot since March.
The Comoros-flagged vessel Arista is part of an operation run by Iranian oil kingpin Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, who is under US and EU sanctions.
Who is Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani?
Shamkhani is a businessman active in Iran's oil transportation sector and subject to numerous Western sanctions. He is the son of the late Ali Shamkhani, who served as senior political adviser to Iran's former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ali Shamkhani chaired Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) for a decade until 2023. He was reported killed in US-Israeli joint strikes on Tehran on February 28. These strikes triggered war with Iran and also led to the death of Khamenei.
In March, the Sarajevo-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed that Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani and his brother built a $29 million real estate portfolio in Dubai using aliases and Caribbean ‘golden passports’.
What do the US and EU say?
The US Treasury Department states that Shamkhani's shipping empire is part of a vast Iran-Russia oil smuggling network and that the Arista vessel in Hormuz is included in this network.
According to the US Treasury, the Shamkhani network uses front companies to purchase Iranian and Russian oil, falsifies shipping documents, frequently transfers oil between vessels, and conceals money flows by having buyers pay through their own shell companies. Additional profits are channeled through hedge funds and other money-laundering operations.
According to the European Commission, Shamkhani ‘uses the company Milavous Group Ltd to blend crude oil with various petroleum products from Russia and rebrands them for export to conceal their origin.’
Shamkhani is not known to have publicly responded to these allegations.
What sanctions have been imposed?
Shamkhani was first sanctioned by the US in July last year. In April, the US Treasury imposed additional sanctions on his network. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated, ‘The Treasury is acting aggressively with Economic Wrath, targeting regime elites like the Shamkhani family who seek to profit off the backs of the Iranian people.’
The US Treasury statement emphasized that Shamkhani ‘heads a multibillion-dollar Iranian and Russian oil sales empire that enriches a family connected to the highest echelons of the Iranian regime, off the backs of the Iranian people.’
According to the EU sanctions tracking website, Shamkhani is also subject to EU sanctions and is described as ‘a businessman active in the Russian oil trade and a central player in what is called Russia's shadow fleet.’ Last August, the United Kingdom also announced sanctions against Shamkhani, including asset freezes, management bans, and travel bans.
UK Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer said, ‘The UK sanctions those who fuel Iran's destabilizing activities.’
