The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it is sanctioning the Indian national Jugwinder Singh Brar, who is based in the United Arab Emirates, and others who are part of what it said is a “shadow fleet” supporting the Iranian regime’s sale of oil.
Brar owns “multiple” shipping companies with nearly 30 vessels. “Brar’s vessels engage in high-risk ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian petroleum in waters off Iraq, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf of Oman,” per the U.S. Treasury Department.
“These cargoes then reach other facilitators, who blend the oil or fuel with products from other countries and falsify shipping documents to conceal links to Iran, allowing these cargoes to reach the international market,” the department stated.
“The Iranian regime relies on its network of unscrupulous shippers and brokers like Brar and his companies to enable its oil sales and finance its destabilizing activities,” stated Scott Bessent, the U.S. treasury secretary.
The U.S. State Department also designated four companies, including those based in China, and identified two vessels as blocked property that it said were part of the Iranian ghost fleet.
“The vessels managed by these companies have moved millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products and play a key role in the Iranian export supply chain,” the department stated.
“Warm wishes from the U.S. Treasury Department today to Jugwinder Singh Brar, who in addition to a Rolls Royce owns multiple shipping companies that boast a fleet of nearly 30 vessels, many of which operate as part of the Iran regime’s shadow fleet,” wrote Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran.
“He’s been evading U.S. sanctions and has now been sanctioned himself,” Brodsky wrote.
