Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Indian national Jugwinder Singh Brar (Brar), who owns multiple shipping companies that boast a fleet of nearly 30 vessels, many of which operate as part of Iran’s “shadow fleet.” OFAC is also designating two UAE- and two India-based entities that own and operate Brar’s vessels that have transported Iranian oil on behalf of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the Iranian military. Brar’s vessels engage in high-risk ship-to-ship (STS) transfers of Iranian petroleum in waters off Iraq, Iran, the UAE, and the Gulf of Oman. These cargoes then reach other facilitators who blend the oil or fuel with products from other countries and falsify shipping documents to conceal links to Iran, allowing these cargoes to reach the international market.
“The Iranian regime relies on its network of unscrupulous shippers and brokers like Brar and his companies to enable its oil sales and finance its destabilizing activities,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “The United States remains focused on disrupting all elements of Iran’s oil exports, particularly those who seek to profit from this trade.”
Today’s action is being taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13902, which targets Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical sectors, and marks the fifth round of sanctions targeting Iranian oil sales since the President issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 2, ordering a campaign of maximum pressure on Iran.
OFAC is committed to aggressively targeting Iran’s oil supply chain, including imposing sanctions on those enabling Iran’s export of its oil to key third countries and the wider international market. These shipments rely on an intricate and extensive web of shell companies, clandestine smuggling, STS transfers, oil storage and blending, and document falsification.
Concurrently, the Department of State is designating four companies for having knowingly engaged in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran, and identifying two vessels as blocked property of two of these companies, all pursuant to E.O. 13846.
ENABLing IRANIAN OIL EXPORTS
Brar is a ship captain and owner and director of UAE-based companies Prime Tankers LLC (Prime Tankers) and Glory International FZ-LLC (Glory International). Through his companies, Brar owns, operates, or manages a fleet of nearly 30 oil and petroleum product tankers, the majority of which are Handysize tankers that stick to coastal waters and carry a fraction of the cargo of larger tankers. Brar uses these smaller vessels for STS transfers to load Iranian oil from other “shadow fleet” vessels or to load oil or fuel that is smuggled from smaller commercial and fishing vessels. These operations can sometimes take days to complete due to the numerous transfers required to fill a single tanker.
In this fashion, Brar has coordinated with Houthi financial official Sa’id al-Jamal’s illicit shipping associates on sanctions evasion tactics, specifically the use of smaller vessels in lieu of large oil tankers to obfuscate Iranian oil smuggling in and around the Persian Gulf and Khor al Zubair, Iraq. In 2023, the Glory International-operated and managed NADIYA (IMO 9118745) smuggled Iranian oil on behalf of the Iranian military.
Brar’s smaller vessels also help obfuscate the movement of Iranian cargoes through STS transfers with sanctioned vessels, often while their Automatic Identification System (AIS) is disabled or manipulated to make the vessels falsely appear to be elsewhere. Brar’s vessels have been observed following high-risk STS patterns on numerous occasions in the waters off Iraq’s Khor Al Zubair and Umm Qasr ports, and near Iran, the UAE, and the Gulf of Oman. At this point, facilitators blend the Iranian oil or fuel with products from other countries and falsify shipping documents to conceal links to Iran, allowing these cargoes to reach the international market via larger tankers.
In addition to his UAE-based businesses, Brar owns or controls India-based shipping company Global Tankers Private Limited (Global Tankers) and petrochemical sales company B and P Solutions Private Limited. Global Tankers is the owner or manager of a number of vessels in Brar’s fleet. Brar has likely also transported Iranian petroleum for his own personal profit because of its availability at lower prices due to the sanctions risk such cargoes carry. Many of Brar’s vessels that are known to have carried Iranian petroleum make frequent port calls at oil and gas terminals in India, including major ports located near two of B and P Solutions Private Limited’s branches.
OFAC is designating Brar pursuant to E.O. 13902 for operating in the petroleum sector of the Iranian economy. Prime Tankers, Glory International, Global Tankers, and B and P Solutions Private Limited are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13902 for being owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, Brar.
BRAR’s EXPANSIVE FLEET AIDING IRAN
In multiple NIOC contracts signed throughout 2024 worth millions of dollars, Glory International-owned vessels GLOBAL BEAUTY (IMO 9221267) and GLOBAL EAGLE (IMO 9422847) were selected to provide fuel oil bunkering services to vessels in Iranian waters. OFAC designated NIOC on October 26, 2020 pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for providing material support to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).
In mid-2023, designated MODAFL front companies Sahara Thunder and Asia Marine Crown Agency coordinated an STS transfer of more than 10,000 metric tons of Iranian petroleum from the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC)-owned DUNE to the Prime Tankers-owned and Glory International-operated GLOBAL ELEGANCE (IMO 9232955).
OFAC designated MODAFL pursuant to E.O. 13224 on March 26, 2019 for providing material support to the IRGC-QF. OFAC designated NITC pursuant to E.O. 13224 for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, the IRGC-QF. Sahara Thunder and Asia Marine Crown Agency were designated on April 25, 2024 pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, MODAFL.
Between February and November 2022, the Prime Tankers-owned vessels GLOBAL EMERALD (IMO 8982888), GLOBAL PEAK (IMO 9125712), and GLOBAL STAR (IMO 9164500) loaded more than 25,000 metric tons of petroleum products in Bandar Abbas, Iran for delivery to Oman and the UAE. These vessels have also been observed transiting from Iran to Iraq’s Khor al-Zubair port, where Iranian petroleum and petroleum products are blended with similar Iraqi products before being exported to the UAE using falsified documents identifying the petroleum as purely Iraqi-origin. This scheme directly benefits Iran by allowing the regime to sell its sanctioned petroleum at the higher price of Iraqi petroleum.
OFAC is identifying the following vessels pursuant to E.O. 13902 as blocked property in which Brar has an interest:
- Barbados-flagged GLOBAL MAHARANI (IMO 9546708)
- Barbados-flagged HARMONY (IMO 9397030)
- Palau-flagged GLOBAL FALCON (IMO 9399167)
- Palau-flagged GLOBAL RANI (IMO 9136113)
- Panama-flagged GLOBAL EMERALD (IMO 8982888)
- Panama-flagged GLOBAL EVEREST (IMO 9125724)
- Panama-flagged GLOBAL STAR (IMO 9164500)
- Panama-flagged GLOBAL PEAK (IMO 9125712)
- Panama-flagged OCEAN PRINCESS 1 (IMO 8413306)
- Panama-flagged GLORY STAR I (IMO 9463528)
- Formerly Cook Islands-flagged GLOBAL ELEGANCE (IMO 9232955)
OFAC is identifying the following vessels pursuant to E.O. 13902 as blocked property in which Glory International has an interest:
- Antigua and Barbuda-flagged GLOBAL DOMINANCE (IMO 9672301)
- Barbados-flagged MIRAGE (IMO 9254422)
- Comoros-flagged GLOBAL EAGLE (IMO 9422847)
- Cook Islands-flagged GLOBAL PEACE (IMO 9555199)
- Gambia-flagged CHIL 1 (IMO 9171498)
- Gambia-flagged PURNA, also known as SAMPURNA RAJYA (IMO 9176656)
- Panama-flagged GLOBAL BEAUTY (IMO 9221267)
- Panama-flagged GLOBAL DIGNITY (IMO 9309227)
- Panama-flagged GLOBAL CREST (IMO 9113094)
- Panama-flagged GLOBAL ANGEL (IMO 9311309)
- Panama-flagged GLOBAL ACE (IMO 9190078)
- Panama-flagged NADIYA (IMO 9118745)
- Formerly Cook Islands-flagged GLOBAL HAWK (IMO 9422859)
OFAC is identifying the following vessels pursuant to E.O. 13902 as blocked property in which Global Tankers has an interest:
- Panama-flagged GLOBAL ASPHALT (IMO 9005338)
- Panama-flagged SIMRAN (IMO 9136644)
- Formerly Cook Islands-flagged GLOBAL GENESIS (IMO 9451501)
OFAC is identifying the following vessel pursuant to E.O. 13902 as blocked property in which Prime Tankers has an interest:
- Panama-flagged LUANDA 1 (IMO 9372705)
SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC or exempt, U.S. sanctions generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.
Violations of U.S. sanctions may result in the imposition of civil or criminal penalties on U.S. and foreign persons. OFAC may impose civil penalties for sanctions violations on a strict liability basis. OFAC’s Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines provide more information regarding OFAC’s enforcement of U.S. economic sanctions. In addition, financial institutions and other persons may risk exposure to sanctions for engaging in certain transactions or activities with designated or otherwise blocked persons.