On Thursday, the Trump administration approved individuals from an international network accused of selling millions of Iranian oil to China to fund Iranian military and terrorist proxies.
The new sanctions come days after President Trump vowed to put “the greatest pressure” on Iran.
“The United States does not tolerate Iran's destructive and unstable behavior and today it sanctions an international network that guides illegal revenues to Iranian forces,” the State Department said in a statement announcing the sanctions.
The oil was shipped to China on behalf of Iranian military general staff (AFGS) by Seper Energy, which the Trump administration describes as an “front company” of the Iranian military.
The illegal oil cargo identified by the Trump administration generated “hundreds of millions of dollars” from the Iranian regime's revenue, according to the Treasury Department.
“The Iranian regime focuses on using oil revenues to fund the development of nuclear programs, manufacture deadly ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, and support representative groups of terrorists in the region. “Treasury Secretary Scott Becent said in a statement.
“The US is committed to actively targeting Iran's attempts to secure funding for these malignant activities,” he added.
The Ministry of Finance's Foreign Assets Control Bureau discovers that Sepehr Energy and its affiliate companies have forged maritime documents “to obfuscate the Iranian origins of oil that they trade and transport” to buyers in China and other overseas countries. I did.
“This revenue stream generates billions of dollars for AFGS each year, which is used to fund Iran's military and proxies, as well as unstable activities around the world,” he said. According to the station.
The agency also took steps to “hides the true name” of Ansia, a Comoros flagged oil tanker involved in the transport scheme, and to India, which provided crews to the vessels. It also noted that the company based in the company was counterfeited. Documents presented to port authorities.
The Ministry of Finance has designated two ships, ChBillion in the Panama Formation and Star Forest in the Hong Kong Formation, as it will serve as Iran's “shadow fleet” for its role in transporting Iranian oil to China.
“Recently in January 2025, these vessels are part of the PRC storage, which is part of a scheme that includes the Iranian military, which is supposed to benefit from the sale of oil on these vessels. was mounted in PRC storage,” the Foreign Assets Control Bureau said.
The Treasury has frozen several individuals' US assets associated with the scheme.
The new sanctions come after 78-year-old Trump signed an executive order earlier this week to reimpose “maximum pressure” on Tehran.
As part of the order, Trump directed Bescent and the Secretary of State to Marco Rubio to strengthen theocratic sanctions over oil sales and enforce violations of existing restrictions to reduce exports to “zero.” did.
