Allred Leads Bipartisan Effort Urging Treasury Department to Crack Down on Iran’s Use of Illicit Shipping to Avoid Sanctions on Oil Exports

"Earlier this month, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) identified 370 foreign-flagged ‘ghost ships’ suspected of involvement in the illicit transfer of Iranian crude oil or petroleum products over the last two years. This number is a 300-unit increase from its previous finding in November 2020. The owners and operators of these ships utilizes tactics such as: ‘flag hopping,’ or the process of changing a vessel’s flag with different flags to circumvent certain maritime policies; ship-to-ship (STS) transfers, or the transfer of cargo between ships at sea; and manipulation of Automatic Identification System (AIS) data to facilitate the trade of Iranian cargo, among many other tactics. Most of these ghost ships have yet to be sanctioned by the United States."