Unmasking Service Providers Facilitating Iran’s Shadow Fleet Operations

The United States is exposing those who provide professional services to assist the Iranian regime evade sanctions and fund its destabilizing activities.

Under Operation Economic Outcast, the Department of the Treasury today is sanctioning Karnakis and Karnakis, a law firm based in Panama and Greece. For years, the firm has set up shell companies to hide the true owners of vessels carrying Iranian oil, petrochemicals, and steel. The firm created companies that served as fronts for networks selling millions of barrels of Iranian oil to benefit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and the Houthis. Treasury is sanctioning five people tied to the firm, a ship management company that operates seven Panama-flagged cargo vessels, and shipping agents in Singapore and Dubai that helped move Iranian cargo through ports around the world.

The United States will continue working with our partners around the world to isolate the Iranian regime economically. We call on governments, flag registries, port authorities, and the private sector to watch for the warning signs of shadow fleet activity and to stop doing business with anyone who helps Iran evade sanctions.

These measures will deprive the Iranian regime of funds to target Americans and our allies by preventing it from using the shadow fleet to transport Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals and to evade U.S. sanctions.

The designations imposed today are pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13902, which targets the Iranian petroleum sector, among other key sectors of the Iranian economy. For more information on today's action, please see the Department of the Treasury's press-releases.

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