TheImmortal
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U.S. Seizes Iranian Fuel Cargoes for First Time
Four vessels were seized in recent days without use of military force
The four vessels, called Luna, Pandi, Bering and Bella, were seized on the high seas in recent days and are now en route to Houston, the officials said. Senior administration officials are expected to meet the tankers at an event scheduled to mark the docking, the officials said. A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.
One official said the vessels had been taken over without the use of military force, but the official didn’t provide any details. Last year, the U.S. tried unsuccessfully to use judicial cooperation agreements to take control of an Iranian oil vessel that had been detained in the British territory of Gibraltar.
A federal judge in Washington last week gave the U.S. title to that tanker, the Grace 1, saying that federal prosecutors had provided enough evidence that the tanker and its fuel were assets of a designated terrorist organization. The tanker had been released from Gibraltarin August over U.S. objections.
The Bering and the Bella were sailing in Cape Verde when the forfeiture complaint was filed in July, U.S. officials have previously said. The Luna and the Pandi last sent a radio signal from Omani waters a month ago, according to the shipping database Fleetmon.
The government’s lawsuit alleges that an Iranian businessman affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s elite military unit designated by the U.S. as a terror group, arranged the fuel deliveries through a network of shell companies to avoid detection and evade U.S. sanctions.
The action is the latest in a series of moves the U.S. has taken against Iran and Iranian ally Venezuela, as part of a broad operation to pressure the governments in Tehran and Caracas to meet U.S. demands.
According to people familiar with the matter and Wall Street Journal research, the four seized vessels—the Bella, the Bering, the Pandi and the Luna—are tied to a network of companies owned or managed by Giorgios Gialozoglou and his son, Marios. The captain of the Bering, the Cape Verde justice ministry and Marios Gialozoglou didn’t respond to requests for comment. The numbers for the other vessels couldn’t be located.
In one of the few other such efforts that was successful, U.S. authorities seized in May 2019 a North Korean ship they allege Pyongyang used to transport coal in violation of U.S. and international sanctions. It was the first such U.S. action against North Korea for sanctions violations.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ws...anian-fuel-cargoes-for-first-time-11597352574
Four vessels were seized in recent days without use of military force
The four vessels, called Luna, Pandi, Bering and Bella, were seized on the high seas in recent days and are now en route to Houston, the officials said. Senior administration officials are expected to meet the tankers at an event scheduled to mark the docking, the officials said. A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.
One official said the vessels had been taken over without the use of military force, but the official didn’t provide any details. Last year, the U.S. tried unsuccessfully to use judicial cooperation agreements to take control of an Iranian oil vessel that had been detained in the British territory of Gibraltar.
A federal judge in Washington last week gave the U.S. title to that tanker, the Grace 1, saying that federal prosecutors had provided enough evidence that the tanker and its fuel were assets of a designated terrorist organization. The tanker had been released from Gibraltarin August over U.S. objections.
The Bering and the Bella were sailing in Cape Verde when the forfeiture complaint was filed in July, U.S. officials have previously said. The Luna and the Pandi last sent a radio signal from Omani waters a month ago, according to the shipping database Fleetmon.
The government’s lawsuit alleges that an Iranian businessman affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s elite military unit designated by the U.S. as a terror group, arranged the fuel deliveries through a network of shell companies to avoid detection and evade U.S. sanctions.
The action is the latest in a series of moves the U.S. has taken against Iran and Iranian ally Venezuela, as part of a broad operation to pressure the governments in Tehran and Caracas to meet U.S. demands.
According to people familiar with the matter and Wall Street Journal research, the four seized vessels—the Bella, the Bering, the Pandi and the Luna—are tied to a network of companies owned or managed by Giorgios Gialozoglou and his son, Marios. The captain of the Bering, the Cape Verde justice ministry and Marios Gialozoglou didn’t respond to requests for comment. The numbers for the other vessels couldn’t be located.
In one of the few other such efforts that was successful, U.S. authorities seized in May 2019 a North Korean ship they allege Pyongyang used to transport coal in violation of U.S. and international sanctions. It was the first such U.S. action against North Korea for sanctions violations.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ws...anian-fuel-cargoes-for-first-time-11597352574
