Shipping’s $275m fine exposes gaping holes in sanctions screening
Adani Enterprises paid $275m to OFAC after 35 Iranian-linked LPG cargoes slipped through despite screening checks.
Adani Enterprises has paid a $275m settlement to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) after 35 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cargoes linked to Iran evaded sanctions despite routine screening.
On paper, Adani followed protocol. Before each cargo arrived, the company screened ships, operators, and sellers against the US sanctions list. All names came back clean. Yet OFAC’s investigation revealed a litany of red flags: AIS spoofing, dark periods, illogical port calls, and frequent changes of vessel name, owner, and flag. The first cargo, a fully refrigerated propane shipment, was allegedly loaded at Sohar, Oman, a port without facilities to export such cargo at the time.
When the trader’s bank halted payment for one shipment in February 2024, the trader simply provided Adani with a new account at a different bank and what OFAC described as “apparently falsified” shipping documents. The cargoes continued. OFAC deemed the case egregious, citing four separate warnings about Iranian origin and prices it considered commercially unreasonable.
Adani Ports
The compliance puzzle: who holds the evidence?: sanctions screening
Importers like Adani rely on certificates of origin, but terminals know what their berths can load, carriers track vessel movements, and bunker suppliers see which ships they fuel. Meanwhile, regulators piece together the truth, often years after payment.
The EU’s regulatory landscape is tightening. Under the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, customs may accept covered goods above 50 tonnes annually only from authorised declarants. From December 2027, the Forced Labour Regulation will empower customs to stop banned products at the border, with missing traceability data counting against companies.
A California forwarder, Pegasus Worldwide Logistics, learned this the hard way. The company settled with OFAC for $175,015 over a $5,950 machine after missing an unchanged telephone number and email address on the sanctions list. Despite a US customs detention notice naming OFAC, Pegasus continued processing payments and collecting fees, a costly oversight.
The evidence need not stay with someone else.” The solution? A neutral, permissioned record of verified voyage events, where customs, banks, and insurers can access the evidence they demand without compromising data control. Until then, shipping’s compliance gaps will keep costing millions.
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