The US Treasury put seven crude carriers and four product tankers on its sanctions list on Thursday over links to Iran’s regime and its allies Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The ships include the 306,300-dwt Young Yong (ex-Maran Castor, built 2001) and 105,700-dwt Zephyr I (built 2002), which have either hit another ship or grounded in South East Asia since late September.
The US links the sanctioned ships to Viktor Sergiyovich Artemov, a Ukrainian national based in Geneva, as well as to several other companies that include Monumont Ship Management, an Istanbul-based outfit that has been notably active on the sale-and-purchase scene for tankers since 2021.
“Monumont … manages several ships owned and/or managed by Artemov,” the Treasury said.
The updated list of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) directly or indirectly associates the persons, companies and ships with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, which the US regards as terrorist organisations.
“The individuals running this illicit network use a web of shell companies and fraudulent tactics, including document falsification to obfuscate the origins of Iranian oil, sell it on the international market, and evade sanctions,” said Brian Nelson, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
According to Ofac, Artemov and his associates recently used offshore companies to reinvest funds from such oil trades into the acquisition of new vessels to increase the network’s fleet.
Artemov’s sanctioned associates are said to include two Iranians, as well as one Swiss, one French and one Lebanese national.
Dangerous ships
The inherent dangers lurking in such trades described as “dark” by Western analysts are highlighted by the fact that two of the ships linked to Artemov were involved in high-profile casualties lately.
The Young Yong ran aground near Takong Kecil Island off Batam City in Indonesia last Friday near a Singapore gas pipeline.
According to Ofac, the master of the Young Yong falsified the ship’s location data and briefed Artemov on the ship’s status and its loading of 1.8 million barrels of oil.
Before crashing into a container ship late in September, the Panama-flag Zephyr I changed hands twice this year, from Lundqvist Rederierna to clients of Monumont and then on to undisclosed buyers.
According to Ofac, Artemov authorised his company Centrum Maritime to purchase the Zephyr I in March 2022 for more than $11m. In April, he is said to have authorised the sale of the Zephyr I to another shell company partly owned by Centrum. In May, he is said to have conferred with an associate about possibly changing its ownership again, to yet another company.
TradeWinds understands that the Zephyr I was genuinely transferred in June and that at the time of its accident, it was controlled by Chinese interests.
Monumont, a Marshall Islands-registered entity, is also shown by online data platforms to have been involved in the management of other sanctioned Artemov vessels, such as the 71,900-dwt product tanker Boceanica (ex-Fotini Lady, built 2004), which was later managed by Spain-based Harbour Ship Management — another outfit sanctioned by the Treasury on Thursday.
The other newly sanctioned vessels show a pattern of similar transactions, being sold by better-known shipping names to little-known ones in 2021 — well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February this year.
That applies to the 164,600-dwt suezmax Lara I (ex-Clara), 112,700-dwt Rain Drop (ex-El Gurdabia, both built 2002), 299,500-dwt Nolan (ex-Oslo, built 2000), 71,800-dwt product tanker Bueno (ex-Analipsi Lady), 310,300-dwt Adisa (ex-Maera, both built 2005), 165,300-dwt Julia A (ex-Icaria), 68,500-dwt B Luminosa (ex-Maya, both built 2003) and 68,500-dwt LR1 Bluefins (ex-El Junior Pnt, built 2001).
Alongside Artemov, the US blacklisted on Thursday Lebanese national Mohamed El Zein, Iranian nationals Rouzbeh Zahedi and Edman Nafrieh, Swiss national Gregorio Fazzone and French national Tatiana Ryabikova.
The US links Fazzone to Ava Petroleum Services, a sanctioned outfit based in Geneva, which the US accuses of having handled payments for oil transported on Monumont ships and of having had knowledge of the movements of the Young Yong.
On LinkedIn, Fazzone lists himself as Ava administrator from 2008 to 2016.
(This article has been updated since original publication to add information on the persons and entities sanctioned by the US)
