A gas flare on an oil production platform is seen alongside an Iranian flag in the Gulf July 25, 2005. (Photo: REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi/File Photo)
The United States announced on Wednesday the imposition of new sanctions as part of “its largest Iran-related action since 2018,” targeting a “vast shipping empire” owned by a relative of a senior political advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The measures announced by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) affect 62 vessels, 73 entities, and 13 individuals around the world, associated with the “the vast shipping empire controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani (Hossein),” who is the son of Ali Shamkhani, one of Khamenei’s top advisors.
Ali Shamkhani was himself sanctioned by the U.S. in 2020.
The Treasury Department claimed that Hossein “leverages corruption through his father’s political influence at the highest levels of the Iranian regime to build and operate a massive fleet of tankers and containerships.”
The U.S. government also stated, “This network transports oil and petroleum products from Iran and Russia, as well as other cargo, to buyers around the world, generating tens of billions of dollars in profit.”
Today, in its largest Iran-related action since 2018, Treasury is sanctioning more than 115 individuals, entities, and vessels that make up a vast shipping empire controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of a top political advisor to the Supreme Leader.
This network… pic.twitter.com/cCBYN8pjBq
— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) July 30, 2025
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “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.”
“The over 115 sanctions issued today are the largest to-date since the Trump Administration implemented our campaign of maximum pressure on Iran. These actions put America first by targeting regime elites that profit while Tehran threatens the safety of the United States,” he continued.
The sanctions were issued under Executive Order 13902, part of the Trump Administration’s framework for exerting maximum economic pressure on the Islamic Republic as the U.S. attempts to pressure Iran to abandoning portions of its nuclear program.
Oil exports, especially illegally smuggle oil, has been a significant source of income for the Islamic Republic despite prior American sanctions.
The Treasury Department alleges that Shamkhani’s fleet of oil tankers and container ships frequently rotates the operators and management companies in order to obscure the true ownership of the vessels and make tracing them back to the Shamkhani family more difficult.
“Shamkhani’s network comprises a vast fleet of vessels, ship management firms, and front companies—some posing as legitimate financial services firms – that launder billions in profits from global sales of Iranian and Russian crude oil and other petroleum products, most often to buyers in China,” the Treasury Department said. “The network employs significant measures to disguise its operations and obfuscate its ties to the Shamkhani family, Iran, and Russia.”
The Treasury said that Hossein’s network handles “billions of dollars” in illicit trade, while shielding its connection to Iran.
Among the entities working with the Shamkhani network were businessmen and companies in countries like the United Arab Emirates, India, and even several Greek shipping firms.
The Treasury Department also noted, “The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior.”
The Iranian government reacted strongly to the announcement, calling the imposition of sanctions “a criminal act.”
“The unilateral and illegal US sanctions against Iran are a criminal act that violates the fundamental principles of international law and human rights and are considered an example of a crime against humanity,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement released in by the Mehr News Agency.
