The U.S. Treasury Department is sanctioning several individuals and vessels, including one individual with a large network of companies and vessels, for operating as part of Iran’s “shadow fleet,” the department announced on Thursday.
Concurrently, the U.S. Department of State announced that it has sanctioned two China-based entities for their roles in facilitating imports of Iranian oil.
Greek national Antonios Margaritis heads a network of companies and has nearly a dozen vessels that he has used to “illicitly facilitate the transportation and sale of Iranian petroleum,” according to Treasury. In 2024, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a vessel that was part of Margaritis’s oil shipping operations, and he was recently involved with the operations of another OFAC-sanctioned vessel.
It stated that “several other vessels and operators” were sanctioned for “their role facilitating Iranian oil exports, which generates revenue that contributes to Iran’s advanced weapons programs.”
This is the fourth action by the State Department under the Trump administration that has targeted China-based terminal operators, which “play a vital role in the trade network for Iranian crude oil that funds Iran’s terrorism abroad and destabilizes the region,” per the department.
