Sanctions said to target shipping network controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The United States Department of the Treasury has imposed new sanctions on more than 100 Iran-linked individuals, companies and ocean-going vessels in what it described as its “largest Iran-related action since 2018”.
The sanctions, announced on Wednesday, target more than 50 vessels which the Treasury Department describes as being part of a “vast shipping empire” of oil tankers and container ships controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of a senior political adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“This network transports oil and petroleum products from Iran and Russia, as well as other cargo, to buyers around the world, generating tens of billions of dollars in profit,” the Treasury Department said in a statement, describing the sanctions package as a “massive action” against an Iranian family network.
“The Shamkhani family’s shipping empire highlights how the Iranian regime elites leverage their positions to accrue massive wealth and fund the regime’s dangerous behaviour,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
