According to a CNA report on Friday the United States slapped charges on the Iran linked oil trafficking network.
The United States on Friday (Feb 2)announced terrorism and sanctions-evasion charges and seizures linked to a billion-dollar oil trafficking network that it says finances Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other militant groups.
The cases are in response to a series of aggressive actions by Iran over several years, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said. In August of 2022, for example, the US charged an IRGC member with plotting to murder John Bolton, who served as US national security adviser under former President Donald Trump.
Actions by Iran-backed militants, including the Oct 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas and the attack over the weekend in Jordan that killed three US soldiers, have increased the focus on Iran’s oil trade, the DOJ said.
“The Justice Department will continue to use every authority we have to cut off the illegal financing and enabling of Iran’s malicious activities, which have become even more evident in recent months,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
The DOJ seized more than US$108 million that it said China Oil & Petroleum Company Limited attempted to launder through accounts at US financial institutions. The DOJ said China Oil & Petroleum is an IRGC front company.
The DOJ said it also seized more than 520,000 barrels of Iran’s oil aboard the crude tanker Abyss that were covered by US sanctions.
Seven defendants, including Sitki Ayan, who is a Turkish national and chairman of the ASB Group, Morteza Rostam Ghasemi, who is the son of a former IRGC commander and Iranian petroleum minister, and Behnam Shahriyari, who is an IRGC Quds Force official, were char
