A Greek Shipping Company Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Iranian Crude Oil

A Greek shipping company pleaded guilty to smuggling Iranian crude oil and agreed to pay a $2.4 million fine, according to US court documents.

The public case against Empire Navigation, which faces three years of probation under a plea agreement, marks the first public admission by US prosecutors that Washington has confiscated almost a million barrels of oil from Swiss Rajan.

The tanker issue has escalated tensions between Washington and Tehran, even as they work to free billions of dollars from frozen Iranian assets in South Korea.

The recently released court documents, in addition to the documents, are based on satellite imagery and show that the Swiss Rajan was trying to hide the loading of Iranian crude oil from a tanker, trying to claim that the oil came from somewhere else.

The ship stayed for several months in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Singapore, and then suddenly, without explanation, headed for the coast of Texas. In recent days, the ship has transferred its cargo to another tanker in Houston. Court documents confirm that the US government appropriated this oil.

The United States has imposed tough sanctions on Iran for years, especially on oil exports, after former US President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal, but on the ground, Tehran continues to export its black gold to a number of countries, which proves the failure of the US sanctions policy.

Source: RT+AB