The US has arrested a Turkish ship manager accused of transporting sanctioned Venezuelan oil using tankers with their names hidden and electronic tracking turned off.
Taskin Torlak, 37, was arrested in Miami on Saturday as he tried to leave the US to return to Turkey after allegedly playing a key role in the operation for nearly three years, according to the US Department of Justice.
It said that Torlak and others received tens of millions of dollars for their roles in the complex scheme that included renaming and flagging tankers, covering ship names with paint or tarpaulins and turning off AIS systems.
The alleged plotters discuss in messages how they can get around sanctions laws and how they used flag states like Djibouti that would not ask any questions if AIS was turned off, according to a 21-page legal complaint filed by prosecutors.
“Our experience with Djibouti has been decent so far,” according to a message written by Torlak, according to the complaint.
He said that other options were the Sierra Leone or Mongolia flags but could not comment further because they had not used them.
The Djibouti registry has been contacted for comment.
The papers identify five tankers involved in the trade, allegedly coordinated by Torlak, a company he controlled and an unidentified Ukrainian who ran companies involved in smuggling sanctioned oil.
US prosecutors say they also worked with a Turkey-based tanker captain — a senior official at a Marshall Islands-incorporated management company controlled by Torlak — and an employee of a China-based shipping company.
The US says the operations ran from November 2020 to June 2023. The plotters allegedly discussed the need to hide what they were doing from the US government and commercial shipping bodies, according to the complaint.
The plotters allegedly used US financial institutions to process the transactions. The complaint says that a business controlled by Torlak wrote to the state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in June 2023 complaining of a $25m payment shortfall from a total bill of $58m.
Torlak faces a single charge of breaching sanctions that were imposed in 2019 on PDVSA.
The court papers allege that Torlak contacted the Ukrainian in January 2021 after the publication of an online news article that stated two ships they were managing had arrived in Venezuela in late December with AIS systems turned off and had loaded cargo.
Torlak wrote that he told another member of the network “that we must stop sending any document to the terminal with actual vessel’s names”, according to prosecutors.
“Maybe PDVSA guy’s emails are even hacked, so anything that goes to that inbox is seen.”
The Ukrainian replies: “This I’m almost sure about”, according to the court papers.
The court documents include a message allegedly sent by the Turkish captain to the China-based shipping company for the charter of the 311,200-dwt VLCC Melissa Amy (built 1999) to haul Venezuelan oil.
The Torlak-linked company agreed to pay a $3m hire deposit if the ship was reflagged to Djibouti, the insurers were from Russia or China and AIS and long-range identification and tracking systems were switched off.
“Owners to also agree on covering vessels name …. With magnet type blanket or sale [sic] cloth or paint it over,” said the communication.
Close their eyes
During discussions between the two sides about reflagging, the Turkish captain wrote: “Due to the nature of the business we have to select the flag like a Djibouti which keeps close their eyes and do not ask any question while we switch off the AIS and LRIT,” according to the complaint.
The ship was flagged with the Cook Islands in April 2021, according to Equasis, two months after the discussions. A call to the tanker’s Shanghai-based manager was not answered on Tuesday.
The other ships identified in the document were the 299,500-dwt Mirame and Kitakaze (both built 2001), both with Seychelles-based management and registered owners, according to Equasis.
Also identified was the 299,000-dwt Ligera (built 2002), with Malaysian ownership and management, and the 158,800-dwt Gracy (built 2007) since renamed and under Vietnamese ownership.
The Ukrainian cites differences with the Iranian when the AIS has to be switched off for around 10 days and from Venezuela when it is more likely to be 40 to avoid being put on the US sanctions list.
“This defendant allegedly conspired to illegally sell Venezuelan oil, using deceit and trickery to hide the fact that this oil originated from Venezuela,” said US Attorney Matthew Graves.
“We remain dedicated to prosecuting violations of these sanctions until the government of Venezuela takes the necessary steps for these sanctions to be lifted.”
The arrest follows continuing upheaval at PDVSA following July’s disputed re-election of President Nicolas Maduro.
A former oil minister was detained last month, the second this year. The Venezuelan public prosecutor said the allegations included handing over key PDVSA information to a company linked to the US intelligence services.
A Turkish shipping company believed to be linked to Torlak said he was not in the US on its behalf and he was not connected to the firm. It said its lawyers were sending documents to US authorities but declined further comment.
