The United States Department of Justice announced on Friday the successful disruption of a multi-million-dollar shipment of crude oil facilitated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The contraband crude oil, destined for another country, has been seized, totaling over 980,000 barrels.
In a statement, the Justice Department noted, “This is the first-ever criminal resolution involving a company that violated sanctions by facilitating the illicit sale and transport of Iranian oil.”
The legal proceedings saw Suez Rajan Limited plead guilty on April 19 to conspiring to violate US sanctions. Simultaneously, the company was sentenced to three years of “corporate probation” and faced a substantial fine of nearly $2.5 million.
A US District Court issued a seizure warrant against the vessel carrying the contraband cargo, and Empire Navigation, the company responsible, agreed to cooperate in transporting the Iranian oil to the United States. The Justice Department has now confirmed the successful conclusion of this operation.
Empire Navigation shouldered the “significant expenses” associated with the vessel’s voyage to the US, according to the Justice Department.
The handling of the seized cargo had initially been a subject of hesitation, with some critics speculating that the Biden administration was engaged in a behind-the-scenes deal with Iran. Such a deal was speculated to potentially involve a slowdown in Iran’s enrichment of weapons-grade uranium, a critical concern in the context of nuclear weapon development.
Earlier in the year, a prisoner-for-cash deal was reached between Washington and Tehran, resulting in the release of wrongfully detained US citizens in Iran. However, the release came with a price, as the US agreed to unfreeze Iranian funds overseas and free an undisclosed number of Iranian prisoners in the United States.
Last month, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers urged President Joe Biden to take action regarding the cargo, which had been anchored off the coast of Texas for over three months.
In response to the situation, Tehran issued threats against the US and any oil company unloading oil from the seized tanker.
Now, the United States is actively seeking control over the cargo, asserting that the oil is subject to forfeiture based on US terrorism and money laundering statutes.
The Justice Department revealed, “The complaint alleges a scheme involving multiple entities affiliated with Iran’s IRGC and the IRGC-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) to covertly sell and transport Iranian oil to a customer abroad.” The involved parties attempted to conceal the oil’s origin through various means, including transferring it to different ships, falsifying documents, and manipulating reporting methods.
Washington also accuses the IRGC of exploiting the US financial system to facilitate the transport of oil and suggests that the profits from these sales support a wide range of malign activities attributed to the IRGC, including weapons proliferation, support for terrorism, and human rights abuses, both domestic and international.
The United States aims to allocate the money from the seized cargo to the US Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund.
As tensions persist, the United States recently deployed over 3,000 American troops to the Middle East in response to perceived threats from Iran and Russia. This deployment included US Sailors and Marines on the USS Bataan and USS Carter Hall warships, in addition to an Amphibious Readiness Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit (ARG/MEU), F-35s, F-16s, and the USS Thomas Hudner (DDG-116), a guided-missile destroyer.
The situation continues to evolve, with the disrupted crude oil shipment serving as a pivotal point in US-Iran relations and global geopolitics.