Reuters reveals how a small insurer in Auckland secretly helped sustain billions in Iranian oil shipments in defiance of global sanctions
A new investigation by Reuters has uncovered that a small but influential company in New Zealand played a covert role in sustaining the Iranian regime’s sanctioned oil exports in recent years.
According to the detailed report published on Tuesday, October 28, the Auckland-based insurance company Maritime Mutual, managed by 75-year-old British national Paul Rankin and his family, insured tankers that transported billions of dollars’ worth of sanctioned Iranian oil to Asia by circumventing U.S. and EU restrictions.
A small firm with an outsized impact
Based on thousands of insurance and shipping records and interviews with informed sources, Reuters found that Maritime Mutual became a crucial link in the “shadow fleet” network of tankers smuggling the Iranian regime’s crude oil under false names and routes to disguise its origin.
Experts explained that the company provided Protection and Indemnity (P&I) insurance, which covers damages to people, property, or the environment rather than the cargo itself. Without such insurance, tankers cannot operate, as even Iranian ports require insured vessels.
Expansion toward Iran
The investigation revealed that Maritime Mutual began expanding its operations toward Iran in 2016—two years before the U.S. reinstated sanctions on the regime. The company’s name appeared on the website of Shiraz Marine, an Iranian shipping services firm, which promoted it as a partner.
In a 2017 letter signed by Paul Rankin and bearing the company’s logo, Shiraz Marine was authorized to represent Maritime Mutual’s interests inside Iran.
After Washington reimposed sanctions in November 2018, the company’s revenues reportedly surged. According to New Zealand corporate filings reviewed by Reuters, Maritime Mutual’s insurance sales grew by an average of 9.5% annually through 2018, reaching $14.2 million. But beginning in 2019—when sanctions tightened—the company’s annual growth rate jumped to 41%, and by 2024 revenues had climbed to nearly $108.5 million.
The sharpest increase came in 2023, when the Iranian regime’s oil exports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, rebounded to around $42 billion—close to pre-sanctions levels.
Links to the regime’s shadow network
In September 2023, Shiraz Marine publicly identified itself as the official representative of New Zealand’s P&I club in Iran. Maritime Mutual, however, denied any active cooperation with the “shadow fleet” or attempts to attract sanctioned clients, claiming that its revenue growth resulted from insuring larger vessels after the lifting of certain reinsurance limits.
Yet, according to data from Global Fishing Watch, vessels insured by Maritime Mutual switched off their tracking systems or transmitted falsified coordinates at least 274 times between 2021 and mid-2025—a method known as spoofing, used to conceal real routes. Analysts described it as unusual that a company in a U.S.-aligned nation would insure so many ships engaging in such deceptive practices.
Investigations in New Zealand and abroad
On October 8, 2024, a maritime industry insider emailed New Zealand’s central bank, urging an investigation into Maritime Mutual’s activities, warning that the company was using its New Zealand registration to lend legitimacy to illicit operations benefiting the Iranian regime.
Following the complaint, the central bank and several government agencies launched a joint investigation, now being conducted in cooperation with Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The inquiry focuses on possible violations of sanctions, failures in anti-terrorism financing compliance, and misleading claims of being an officially recognized insurer.
Police raided Maritime Mutual’s offices in Auckland and Christchurch on October 16, seizing financial and insurance records. While no formal charges have yet been filed, New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that regulators remain in direct contact with the company.
The U.K. Treasury declined to comment on whether Maritime Mutual had complied with sanctions laws, citing concerns that releasing such information could harm diplomatic relations and aid those seeking to evade sanctions.
A vital link in the regime’s oil trade
Despite its modest size and low profile, Reuters concluded that Maritime Mutual’s insurance services have played a vital role in sustaining the Iranian regime’s oil export network. Operating from a country known for stability and distance from global conflicts, the firm appears to have provided a façade of legitimacy that helped keep Tehran’s sanctioned oil trade alive.
With New Zealand now coordinating its investigation with major Western allies, the case could tie one of the world’s most complex sanctions-evasion networks to one of the Pacific’s quietest corners—placing Auckland at the heart of an international inquiry into the Iranian regime’s covert oil trade.
