Iran regime-linked oligarchs use clandestine shipping, forged oil origins, and global loopholes to enrich the inner circle and sustain Tehran’s sanctions-busting economy
The maritime industry publication Maritime Executive has published a damning analysis of how senior figures linked to the Iran regime rely on corruption and organized criminal networks to sustain both political power and immense personal wealth. According to the report, these networks are not peripheral anomalies but structural pillars that simultaneously preserve the regime and enrich individuals embedded in its inner circle.
At the center of the investigation are two notorious figures who amassed vast fortunes through Iran regime’s so-called “shadow fleet,” a clandestine system used to export oil in defiance of international sanctions. Both individuals have been sanctioned for their roles, yet their operations demonstrate how profit incentives routinely outweigh compliance with Western sanctions in parts of the global shipping and energy markets.
Maritime Executive notes that the full scope of these actors’ activities remains obscured from public view. Their expertise lies in disguising brokerage and shipping operations behind semi-legal corporate structures, often registered in permissive jurisdictions. Nevertheless, the available intelligence has been sufficient for Western governments to impose sanctions, even as loopholes continue to allow limited operations where enforcement is weak.
One central figure is Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of Ali Shamkhani, the former national security adviser of the Iran regime and still a close confidant of the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Through Dubai-based companies including Admiral and Milavous, Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani has been accused since 2011 of blending Iranian and Russian oil and falsifying its origin. For years, these shipments reportedly reached reputable Western oil companies under false documentation.
The European Union sanctioned Shamkhani in 2011, and in its most recent update described him as a “key player in Russia’s shadow fleet operations.” Despite these measures, he has denied involvement in Milavous activities or in transporting Iranian drones to Russia. On July 30, 2025, the U.S. Treasury also sanctioned him, linking a network of UAE-registered companies—including Marvis, Armada Global, Kuban Shipping, Krios Shipping, and Fractal Marine—to his operations. According to U.S. authorities, the Shamkhani empire encompasses more than 50 vessels, underscoring the industrial scale of the Iran regime’s sanctions-evasion machinery.
Equally emblematic is Babak Zanjani, a name long synonymous with grand corruption under the Iran regime. Arrested in 2013 by regime self due to internal disputes on corruption charges, Zanjani spent limited time in prison. In 2021, he was sentenced to death for “spreading corruption on earth,” primarily for embezzling $2.7 billion from the regime’s Oil Ministry through his commercial empire. In 2024, however, his sentence was commuted to 20 years by direct order of the regime’s supreme leader, and he was soon released, returning swiftly to business.
Zanjani’s Sorinet Group, headquartered in the UAE, operates across cosmetics, finance and banking, hospitality, commercial aviation, infrastructure, construction materials, information technology, and international real estate development. Its footprint spans Turkey, Tajikistan, Malaysia, and China. As early as 2013, Zanjani publicly estimated his net worth at $13.5 billion. That same year, both the EU and the United States sanctioned him for facilitating oil shipments and financial transfers designed to bypass sanctions, including cooperation with entities tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was also accused of conducting ship-to-ship oil transfers off the eastern coast of Malaysia.
Following his conviction, Zanjani’s business empire reemerged under the name Avan Group, reportedly maintaining extensive ties with regime institutions and the IRGC. On December 2, he resurfaced publicly on the X platform with a fierce attack on former president Hassan Rouhani, whose name has been floated in regime circles as a potential successor to Khamenei—an episode highlighting Zanjani’s continued relevance within elite power struggles.
Maritime Executive concludes that both Shamkhani and Zanjani still appear able to travel with relative freedom, although they have recently chosen to spend more time inside Iran, likely due to personal security concerns. Their continued mobility and influence illustrate a broader reality: the Iran regime’s shadow economy is not an aberration but a deliberate system, shielding loyal insiders from accountability while financing repression, regional destabilization, and the regime’s survival in the face of international pressure.
For the Iranian people, these revelations underscore a bitter truth: while ordinary citizens bear the cost of sanctions, inflation, and economic collapse, regime-connected elites continue to profit handsomely from corruption, protected by power and impunity at the very top.
