Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated 18 individuals and entities that make up the "rahbar" shadow-banking networks of sanctioned Iranian banks Bank Melli and Shahr Bank, including Singapore-based Golden Mist PTE Ltd, UAE-based Empire International Trading FZE and HMS Trading FZE, Iran-based Nikan Pezhvak Aria Kish Company and Tejarat Hermes Energy Qeshm, and UK-based Nanshan Ltd. Separately, OFAC designated senior Iranian security officials, including SCNS Secretary Ali Larijani, for their role in the regime's violent crackdown on peaceful protesters that began in December 2025. The financial designations were made under E.O. 13902 (Iran's financial/petroleum/petrochemical sectors) and the human-rights designations under E.O. 13553 and E.O. 13876, in furtherance of NSPM-2; Treasury noted it sanctioned more than 875 persons, vessels, and aircraft under the same maximum-pressure campaign in 2025.

On 9 October 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated more than 50 individuals, entities and vessels for facilitating Iranian crude oil, petroleum-product and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exports, in a coordinated action with the State Department. The network included 33 vessels transporting Iranian crude and LPG, shipping entities registered in Panama, the Marshall Islands, Ukraine and Liberia, an Iranian petrochemical producer, four Turkish petrochemical trading entities, five Chinese entities importing/refining/storing Iranian petroleum (including a China-based petrochemical-terminal operator, Jiangyin Foreversun Chemical Logistics Co., Ltd.), three Singapore-based logistics entities, and 27 entities based in Hong Kong, the UAE and India engaged in trading and shipping. The action was taken pursuant to the National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2) maximum-pressure campaign against Iran and blocks all US property/interests of the designated parties, exposing non-US counterparties to secondary-sanctions risk.

On 3 July 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated a network of UAE- and UK-based companies controlled by Iraqi-British businessman Salim Ahmed Said that has smuggled Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi crude since at least 2020, plus five additional shadow-fleet vessel owners based in Seychelles, the Marshall Islands, and the British Virgin Islands. The action, taken pursuant to E.O. 13902 (Iran petroleum sector) and E.O. 13224 (counterterrorism), also identifies several tankers as blocked property and marks the eighth round of sanctions under National Security Presidential Memorandum 2's Iran maximum-pressure campaign. Concurrently, the State Department designated six additional entities and four vessels under E.O. 13846.

On 20 June 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated one individual, eight entities, and one vessel pursuant to Executive Order 13382 (WMD proliferators) for procuring and transshipping sensitive machinery to Iran's Rayan Roshd Afzar Company (RRA), a producer of UAV components and aerospace software for the IRGC. The vessel SHUN KAI XING, owned by Hong Kong-based Unico Shipping Co Ltd and chartered by Singapore-based V-Shipping Pte Ltd, was carrying the machinery for RRA and an affiliated firm when its cargo was inspected; the designated network — including China-based Shenzhen Xinxin Shipping, Dongguan Zanyin Machinery and Equipment, Athena Shipping, shipmaster Zhang Yanbing, and Turkiye-based Edisa Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi — then falsified bills of lading to obscure the Iran-bound, RRA-consigned cargo after the inspection.

Canada made SOR/2025-142, Regulations Amending the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations, registered 2025-06-13. The regulations add 34 Russian entities to Part 2 of Schedule 1 alongside Keremet Bank Open Joint-Stock Company (Kyrgyzstan), three UAE-based entities, one Singapore-based entity, and two energy-commodity trading companies (Switzerland, Azerbaijan) — all designated as sanctions-evasion intermediaries for Russian trade. The amendments also add 201 vessels (by IMO number) to Schedule 1.1 as part of Russia's "shadow fleet," triggering a dealings ban, asset freeze, and a new prohibition on providing financial or other services to non-Canadians in relation to a listed vessel.

On 13 May 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated nearly two dozen firms and individuals — including Hong Kong-based intermediary Star Energy International Limited — for operating in Iran's illicit international oil trade on behalf of Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars Company (Sepehr Energy), the Tehran-based oil-sales arm of Iran's Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS). The designated network spans commercial intermediaries and shipping counterparties across China, Hong Kong and Singapore, the last a hub for ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian-origin crude. Designations were made under counter-terrorism (SDGT) and Iran Financial Sanctions Regulations (IFSR) authorities as part of the administration's maximum-pressure campaign to cut off military and IRGC-linked revenue from Iran's oil exports.

On 8 May 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated China-based "teapot" refinery Hebei Xinhai Chemical Group Co., Ltd. and its Singapore-based broker subsidiary Xing AO Energy PTE. LTD., three firms tied to a Dongying Port (Shandong) terminal that has received Iranian crude from shadow-fleet tankers, and six Hong Kong-, UK-, and Marshall Islands-owned shadow-fleet vessels (STAR TWINKLE 6, LAMD, SKADI, BIG MAG, IMPALAS, THANE) plus their owning shipping companies and two vessel captains. It is OFAC's third action against an Iranian-oil teapot refinery and its first targeting Shandong port terminal operators, taken under E.O. 13902 (Iran petroleum/ petrochemical sector) and E.O. 13846 (NIOC support) as part of the administration's NSPM-2 maximum-pressure campaign.