US Treasury sanctions Indian fraud network for providing false shipments to Iranian oil tankers

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Indian couple Suniel Kumar Sharma and Jaspreet Preety Shahi, based in Chandigarh, along with their affiliated companies, for impersonating national ship registries and classification societies for over a decade to help Iran's oil tankers evade international regulations. Their scheme dates to 2014, when they posed as the Dominican Republic's ship registry, and expanded to cover vessels in the "shadow fleet" carrying Iranian oil for the military and its proxies. The designations freeze any U.S.-held assets and bar Americans from transacting with the entities, widening the enforcement net beyond shipowners to the obscure intermediaries that certify and register hulls. The action signals Treasury's focus on the paperwork layer of sanctions evasion as Washington keeps pressure on Iranian crude exports. Watch for further designations of classification societies and registries, and for whether flagged vessels face insurance and port-access complications.