OFAC Sanctions Shipping Network Moving Iranian Oil

The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned more than a dozen companies, ships and Luay al-Mallah, brother of sanctioned “shipping Syrian magnate” Abdul Jalil Mallah, for helping to move Iranian crude oil and liquid petroleum gas to Syria and East Asia. After his brother was sanctioned, Luay al-Mallah helped run his family’s shipping business, OFAC said, which assists the shipping network run by Sa’id al-Jamal, an Iran-backed financial facilitator for the Yemen-based Houthis (see 2408150008).

The designations target companies and vessels registered, flagged or based out of the Marshall Islands, Panama, Hong Kong, Sao Tome and Principe, Iran and Turkey. OFAC said the vessels and their shipping company owners have “facilitated illicit trade” between Iran and other destinations, including Syria, to earn revenue for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and the terror group Hezbollah.