2 days ago
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A Dutch law firm has helped Iran's oil industry evade US sanctions for years, according to an investigation by Netherlands’ BNR News Radio.
International Law Firm Taheri (ILFT) has played a key role in helping Iran's oil sales by establishing at least six shell companies since 2020 and using intermediaries as directors to conceal the true ownership of the oil tankers, the report added.
A series of US-led sanctions on Iranian oil over the past decade have forced Iran’s government to resort to a network of tankers, often referred to as a shadow or ghost fleet - which consists of hundreds of vessels controlled by Iranian interests via intermediaries - to evade restrictions.
The Dutch law firm helped selling Iran's crude through a Surinamese subsidiary based in Capelle aan den IJssel, a town in the western Netherlands.
Last month, the US Treasury Department sanctioned several entities for their alleged involvement in shipments of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products for US-designated entities National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) or Triliance Petrochemical Company.
Three of the sanctioned companies were registered at ILFT's Suriname address.
ILFT owner Masoud Taheri, 44, told BNR that he is merely a service provider offering a solution for a client that faces a legal issue at an international level.
Taheri noted that trading Iranian oil is not prohibited in Europe or the South American country of Suriname, emphasizing that his firm and its subsidiary are operating within the law.
However, he declined to disclose the identity of the tanker fleet's owner, although the website of his firm features the logo of the NIOC under the heading 'Important Clients'.
Claire Jungman, head of the Iran Tanker Tracking Program at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), described the ships registered through ILFT as among the most important carriers of Iranian oil.
UANI estimates that these six tankers alone have exported 160 million barrels of oil valued at about $10 billion at current market prices since US sanctions took effect.
Iran exported more than $70 billion worth of oil after the 2015 nuclear deal, according to the data released by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). This fell to less than $10 billion in 2020, following a unilateral US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement and then-President Donald Trump’s so-called maximum pressure campaign.
The figure rose again to just above $40 billion in 2023, in large part due to a myriad of smaller Chinese refineries purchasing Iranian oil masked as originating from other countries.
