The U.S. government said it is imposing punitive sanctions on a Greek businessman who allegedly used Iranian money to buy oil tankers to help Iran ship crude oil in violation of U.S. and European Union sanctions.
The U.S. government said it is imposing punitive sanctions on a Greek businessman who allegedly used Iranian money to buy oil tankers to help Iran ship crude oil in violation of U.S. and European Union sanctions.

Dimitris Cambis used money provided by Iranian front companies to purchase eight old oil tankers that were covertly filled with Iranian oil for shipment overseas, according to the departments of Treasury and State. Mr. Cambis denied the accusations.

The sanctions were a relatively rare public castigation of a private businessman. "Pretending to work on behalf of his own company, Impire Shipping, Cambis recently purchased eight very large crude carrier oil tankers, all the while secretly working on behalf of" the National Iranian Tanker Co., a senior Obama administration official said.

The Greek-owned ships loaded Iranian crude at sea in ship-to-ship transfers to disguise the origin of the oil, officials alleged. The U.S. didn't disclose the total amount of oil allegedly shipped by Mr. Cambis's companies. Each tanker was capable of carrying as much as $200 million worth of crude oil.

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions against Mr. Cambis, the eight holding companies that own the tankers, and the eight vessels themselves. Concurrently, the State Department placed visa restrictions on Mr. Cambis and senior executives at Impire Shipping, barring them from travel to the U.S.

Mr. Cambis denied that his ships have been used in any way to transport Iranian oil or that the vessels have any connection with National Iranian Tanker Co. "Nobody has asked me for any information on what exactly we transport," he said. "I believe that this is a ridiculous conclusion without giving us the opportunity to disclose the relevant information."

He added that U.S. officials may have been misguided because of his company's involvement in Iranian natural gas. "We have an exclusive distribution agreement with Iran on gas, which is done via pipelines," he said. "None of my ships have anything to do with transporting of Iranian oil."

The U.S. sanctions campaign is part of a Washington 's effort to pressure Iran to subject its nuclear program to international scrutiny. The U.S. estimates that sanctions -- including punitive measures imposed by the EU -- have severely dented Iran 's ability to export oil and have cost the Iranian government about $3 billion a month in revenues.

Iran says that its nuclear development is for peaceful purposes. A spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations didn't respond to requests for comment.

According to publicly available shipping information, seven of the eight tankers in question visited China on their last port calls. All seven were homebound for the United Arab Emirates , where Mr. Cambis's shipping operations are based. One vessel was last reported in the Indian Ocean headed to Singapore .

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