The US Department of Treasury applied new sanctions against Russian entities and vessels that were involved in a sanctions evasion scheme, on delivering jet fuel to Russian forces operating in Syria.
Specifically, the ones designated are Maritime Assistance LLC, a front company supporting the U.S-designated company OJSC Sovfracht (“Sovfracht”), originally designated for operating in Ukraine.
The US Treasury added that Sovfracht was behind a sanctions evasion conspiracy to make payments and facilitate the transfer of supplies of jet fuel to Russian forces operating in Syria in support of the Assad government.
Also, OFAC set as blocked property five vessels of Transpetrochart Co. Ltd., a Russian company designated by OFAC in December 2016 for providing material support to Sovfracht.
Sigal Mandelker, Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence commented
Treasury is targeting a sanctions evasion scheme that includes front companies, vessels and conspirators who have been facilitating the illicit transfer of jet fuel to the Russian military in Syria.
The sanctions evasion scheme was unveiled with the help of the FBI.
The designation follows a day after the US Treasury designated tanker subsidiaries of Chinese COSCO, along with other Chinese companies, for transporting oil from Iran in defiance of sanctions set in place in November 2018. Also, earlier the US blacklisted four tankers for transferring oil from Venezuela to Cuba.
