Shipping

Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has charged shipping financier John Michael Ormerod with alleged money laundering and breaches of Russia sanctions.

The U.S. Treasury imposed a fresh round of Iran-related sanctions on Wednesday, targeting what it described as the illicit oil-shipping empire of Iranian magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani and a Hezbollah-linked oil-for-gold laundering network tied to Venezuela. 

The Trump administration eased sanctions on Venezuela’s state-run financial system on Tuesday in a move aimed at supporting the country’s battered economy, reviving oil-sector activity, and stabilizing the government of acting President Delcy Rodriguez.  

The Trump administration has allowed a temporary sanctions waiver on Russian oil to expire, ending a short-lived reprieve that had permitted the sale of some blacklisted Russian crude and pulling back from a policy that was intended to help contain surging global oil prices.

The Trump administration is expected to extend its waiver of sanctions on Russian oil this week, according to former Treasury and State Department officials cited by Semafor, a step that could tee up a similar extension for Iranian oil later this month as the White House weighs fuel prices and broader market stability. 

Iran is seeking to collect transit tolls from oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz in cryptocurrency, a move that could deepen the role of digital assets in the country’s sanctions-hit economy.

Companies importing goods from China are increasingly using accounting maneuvers, middlemen, and in some cases apparent fraud to reduce the value of shipments entering the United States and cut the tariffs they owe.

Chilean authorities uncovered organized criminal networks that investigators say stole, processed, and shipped copper on a vast scale to Peru and China, exposing a trade worth an estimated 817 billion pesos, or about $917 million, between 2020 and 2025.

China has helped Iran blunt the impact of U.S. sanctions over the past five years by buying the bulk of its oil exports and supporting a complex financial and shipping network that has allowed Tehran to keep earning billions of dollars in revenue.

Asian countries hit by acute energy disruptions from the Gulf conflict are increasingly turning to Russia for emergency oil supplies after the United States granted a temporary sanctions waiver on Russian crude.