15 Aug 2025 Issue: 68 / 33
For years, the US has targeted Iran-affiliated entities in the UAE with sanctions, but Ofac’s latest designation has struck at the heart of Dubai’s oil trading sector. Traders are now having to contend with stricter compliance rules to avoid running afoul of sanctions.
On 30 July the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) sanctioned more than 50 individuals and companies it said were part of the “vast shipping empire controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani” – known in Dubai’s trading circles simply as ‘Hector’.
“The Shamkhani family’s shipping empire highlights how the Iranian regime elites leverage their positions to accrue massive wealth and fund the regime’s dangerous behavior,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in the statement. “The over 115 sanctions issued today are the largest to-date since the Trump Administration implemented our campaign of maximum pressure on Iran.” (CONTINUED – 919 WORDS)
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