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The US has sanctioned an Indian couple accused of running a network of fake ship registries that let tankers carrying Iranian oil keep sailing under false flags.
Getting into it: The Treasury Department said Wednesday that Suniel Kumar Sharma and his wife, Jaspreet Preeti Shahid, used their headquarters in Chandigarh, India, to pose as the official ship registries of countries including Guyana, Eswatini, Laos, Aruba, Mozambique and Timor-Leste. They often did so just by buying web domains and building websites that looked like real government registries. The department said the operation has been running since at least 2014 and has given false flags and safety certifications to sanctioned tankers moving Iranian oil, some of them hauling oil on behalf of Iran’s military and the militias it backs.
One of the couple’s registries, set up in Singapore in 2023, kept flagging ships carrying Iranian oil even after Eswatini publicly disowned it. In April, the US seized a tanker flying a fake Guyana flag with a cargo of Iranian oil. Treasury also hit nine India-based companies tied to Sharma, along with two other Indian nationals who serve as directors of the couple’s businesses.
In a statement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “As we have said many times, under Operation Economic Outcast, you are either with us or against us. We know where you are, and we will sanction those who continue supporting the Iranian regime, whether by land, sea, or air.”
Sharma pushed back in an interview with Lloyd’s List, a shipping trade publication, saying he got out of registering ships months ago and isn’t behind the registries operating now. India’s foreign ministry said only that it had “taken note” of the sanctions.
This all comes as the Trump administration ramps up its campaign to cut off Iran’s oil money, with Treasury saying Iran’s rial has sunk to record lows and inflation there is running near 90%. The sanctions landed the day after Democrats took the House and Senate in the midterms.
