Economy
Leaked emails shed light on IRGC's oil sanctions evasion methodology
Using 'dark fleet' tankers and other deceptive practices, the IRGC has been overseeing the sale of billions of barrels of sanctioned oil.
![A photo taken March 23, 2008 shows ships anchored at the mouth of the Strait of Malacca. [Roslan Rahman/AFP files/AFP]](/gc3/images/2025/01/21/48822-strait-of-malacca-370_237.webp)
By Pishtaz |
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been orchestrating a large-scale sanctions-evasion network that has sold and transported billions of barrels of crude to China and around the world, leaked emails reveal.
In special report on how Iran moves sanctioned oil, published January 7, Reuters examined around 10,000 emails leaked last February by PRANA Network hackers targeting Sahara Thunder, a front company of the Iranian military.
The US blacklisted the company last April for supporting IRGC shipping operations.
Leaked communications show Sahara Thunder deployed 34 ships to move nearly 20 million barrels of oil between March 2022 and February 2024.
They revealed systematic deception methods, including falsified shipping documents, crew instructions for vessel renaming, painted-over identifiers and manipulated tracking signals.
In a detailed analysis of nearly five years of satellite images published in 2024, Bloomberg showed how billions of dollars of sanctioned Iranian oil are flowing annually to China -- the primary destination for Iranian oil.
Oil trade revenues support Iran's "nuclear program, its development and proliferation of provocative ballistic missiles, and financing of terrorist proxy groups such as Hizbullah, Hamas and the Houthis," per the US Treasury.
'Ghost fleet' activity
Operating under the alias "Deep Ocean," the Panama-flagged "Remy" falsified documents claiming its cargo came from Iraq's Basra region, Reuters reported.
It was in fact carrying Iranian oil received through a ship-to-ship transfer in the Gulf.
In the Strait of Malacca, which connects the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea, it divided its cargo between two vessels, the leaked emails reveal.
Satellite imagery confirmed the ships' side-by-side positioning on March 9, with both vessels later delivering the Iranian oil to China's Lanqiao port.
The Strait of Malacca is "a common flashpoint for bad actors to obscure the movements of vessels involved in illegal activities like oil smuggling, sanctions evasion, or illegal ship-to-ship (STS) transfers," according to HawkEye 360.
"With these congested waterways, it’s difficult to monitor legitimate vessel activity – let alone those who intentionally try to evade detection," the radio frequency data analytics company said.
United Against Nuclear Iran has identified more than 470 vessels in Iran's "ghost fleet" used for sanctions evasion.
The US Treasury has kept steady pressure on this fleet -- including 34 of Sahara Thunder's ships -- through a sanctions regimen that includes a December 19 tranche blacklisting entities and vessels involved in the illicit oil trade.
Iran allocated almost half of its 2024 third quarter crude loadings to Southeast Asia, underscoring the region’s pivotal role in facilitating Iranian crude to China, S&P Global reported October 18.
These barrels typically undergo blending and are reclassified as Malaysian or Singaporean-origin before reloading aboard vessels bound for China, it said.
Iran has sold its own oil; it has not colonized and plundered like the West. Did someone stop America from selling weapons of mass destruction to Israel? That oil is used for human consumption. The American two-thousand-pound bomb was only used to kill humans. A country that used the atomic bomb and practiced racial discrimination until 1962 according to its own law, and has been waging war in all corners of the world and in other lands for the past two hundred years has no right to comment on or impose sanctions on a country with several thousand years of global civilization.
The US spends billions of dollars a year helping the Israeli terrorist regime to massacre Palestinians, so that the child-killing Israeli army can massacre Palestinians. Do you think, Mr. author of the article, that Hamas and Hezbollah, who defend their country against Israeli occupation, are terrorists? Israel has assassinated several Iranian scientists and leaders of militant groups, one example of which was the martyr Ismail Haniyeh, who massacred the villages of Sabra and Shatila a few years ago. The US itself massacred thousands of people by occupying Iraq and Afghanistan. It assassinated the Iranian general, the martyr Soleimani. They support the terrorist Jolani, for whom they had put a $10 million reward until yesterday, because he is now useful to them. For several years, the US has been plundering Syrian oil and using its money to support ISIS and other terrorist groups. It is withdrawing from the JCPOA and imposing crippling sanctions, causing the deaths of cancer patients and children. The US is equipped with a nuclear bomb, so the real terrorist and the main protector of terrorists is the US itself.
America is oppressing our beloved country of Iran and its great and honorable nation with its cruel sanctions to the maximum extent possible! Therefore, the Iranian government must use every possible means to circumvent the sanctions by appropriate means... We are not going to sit back and watch!
When a country is subjected to maximum sanctions, it must find a way to circumvent the sanctions. Unfortunately, bully countries from the United States to the foxy England, and seemingly civilized France, and Germany have imposed sanctions on Iran. They oppress the Iranian people, not the government. They are all oppressors.
It is certain that it was in the interests of the regime. Experts have analyzed it this way: if oil remains, the country will not have the power to defend itself, but will rather go to waste. However, when the country's military increases by selling so much oil, the value of oil will increase rapidly.
They have the power to kill. In a world where cheating and killing the oppressed and weak has become an achievement; if it weren't for this zealous army, they would have divided ourselves and our country among themselves like sacrificial meat. We should be proud of having such a powerful and courageous force. Good job, everyone.
You are also part of the big man-killing Satan.
I don't have an opinion.
Very good, I like your program.
I completely disagree with your content. You have been corrupted by the great devil that is America. Iran supports oppressed people everywhere in the world. Long live Iran and Iranians. Death to the Zionist regime.
Perfect
It was useful and great.
This is not something new? Because 50 years of lies = no matter what we think is impossible, they do it to stay in Iran.
I agree with the theory that has been presented.
The one who takes all the money should agree.
The biggest terrorist regime in the world is the Zionist regime. Its very survival depends on terror. Death to Israel and its supporters and friends.
Well done.
Good job. God willing, may we too benefit from the wealth of these transactions one day. The pride of our Iran, our IRGC.
One steals to have bread, and lamb kebab, while another lies down hungry on her stomach hoping for a morning with bread and butter.
Hello, now that simple-living people are ruling our country, this is the situation of the people of Iran, as you can see. May God not bring a day when white-collared people, silk-clad people, and tie wearing ones who think of nothing but their own and their families' enjoyment come to power. Our leader is the most simple-living leader in the world. Although I am drowning under poverty, high prices, and debt, I say what I see, not what I dream. Ayub Ebrahimi.
Awesome.
The US sanctions Iran on the pretext of nuclear weapons, but it and other Western countries have nuclear weapons and they do not accept that Iran has a peaceful nuclear program. If the atomic bomb is bad, then why do they have it themselves and threaten others? If they are honest, they should enact a law in the Security Council that every country that has an atomic bomb must disarm and others must not produce it. Western countries do not do this because they lie. They say that they themselves have long-range missiles. They are giving one-ton bombs to Israel to drop on Palestinian children and women and massacre them, but other countries should not have them. In the previous US elections, both Trump and Mrs. Clinton admitted that the US created ISIS, but they accuse others of being terrorists. Until yesterday, they had put a $10 million reward on Jolani, but now, because he has served them, he is no longer a terrorist. Israel can assassinate wherever it wants, it is not condemned, it is even encouraged. If I were to write about it, it would take a thousand pages.
Someone was raising a wolf cub @ when an adult wolf, it tore the master apart @ I hope that one day the oppression of the ruling system will be consumed by itself.
It will happen soon. They are trying to stay, but time is running out for them... because Iran has nothing left for them to give and stay.