US sanctions oil trader Wellbred over Iran links

[SINGAPORE] The US imposed sanctions on Singapore-based Wellbred Capital and its trading firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Switzerland, citing links with Iran, as it steps up measures to target Teheran’s global financial links.

The company had ties to Iranian oil shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on its website on Monday (Aug 24).

“Shamkhani built Wellbred as a company outside the network’s Iranian business, though Shamkhani is ultimately responsible for Wellbred’s operations,” it added in a statement outlining the measures targeting nearly 60 companies, individuals and ships.

Wellbred did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Also sanctioned were Dubai-based Wellbred Trading, Wellbred Trading in Geneva and its French biofuels refinery La Nivernaise de Raffinage.

With headquarters in Singapore, Wellbred trades in oil, naphtha, petrochemicals and liquefied petroleum gas and has offices in the UAE, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, it says on its website.

OFAC had previously designated individuals, entities and vessels forming part of a vast shipping empire controlled by Shamkhani in July 2025 and April 2026.

Shamkhani, the son of now-deceased senior Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani, operates a massive fleet of tankers and containerships, OFAC had said.

The network ferries oil and petroleum products from Iran and Russia, as well as other cargo, to buyers around the world, generating profits running into tens of billions of dollars, OFAC added. REUTERS