Nobu Su in hot water in the US for violating Iran sanctions

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued a Finding of Violation against Nobu Su’s B Whale Corp (BWC) for breaking US trade sanctions against Iran.

B Whale Corp from Taiwan had entered into bankruptcy proceedings in a US Bankruptcy Court in June 2013 and that put it under US jurisdiction when the sanctions violations occurred between August 30 and September 2 of that year, the treasury’s investigation claims.

US sanctions policies then in place (but subsequently lifted) prohibited business dealings with the National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC).

OFAC found that the 320,000 dwt B Whale conducted a ship-to-ship transfer with, and received 2,086,486 barrels of condensate crude oil from, the NITC VLCC Nainital. It also found that BWC took steps to conceal evidence of the transaction.

As BWC’s assets have been liquidated in the bankruptcy, OFAC ruled that a Finding of Violation was appropriate rather than a financial penalty.

BWC was part of the TMT shipping firm at the time.

The vessel B Whale has since been sold to the Onassis group and renamed Olympic Luck.