‘The industry has been put on notice that Ofac and OFIS are looking closely at it,’ argue Clyde & Co partners Murphy and Keough

‘The guidance identifies a number of illicit and suspicious shipping practices that look remarkably similar to those of Ofac,’ says Reed Smith

The charity said the crew were home safe but did now say how they left the UAE.

The ship’s last AIS signal was eight days ago and the charity fears for its crew’s welfare

The relatively swift removals of the vessels from the Ofac blacklist will have underlined the upside to co-operating fully with US sanctions, according to observers

The owner of four tankers alleged to be carrying Iranian gasoline for Venezuela has spoken of his dismay at how the vessels became embroiled in US sanctions. ‘We are not going to break sanctions and we will obey the law,” Capt George Gialozoglou tells Lloyd's List

The four vessels have turned off their identification systems since May and their whereabouts are unknown, but it is unclear how they might be seized unless they enter US territorial waters

Four companies benefit — Thenamaris, NGM Energy, Chemnav and Eurotanker

Caracas Capital Markets, a US-based investment firm that tracks Venezuela sanctions links, used vessel-tracking data and court documents filed in Houston to detail subterfuge and obfuscation

Freight derivative volumes exceeded 65,000 lots last week, the highest level seen since the height of the financial crisis in 2008, while tanker earnings have seen a sharp fall as crude exports decline and rising Latin American coronavirus cases dent a bounceback in demand

A total of 28 tankers are laden with Venezuelan crude and either in floating storage or are sailing have yet to discharge, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says Iran's support for the 'authoritarian and corrupt regime in Venezuela' is unacceptable