US earned millions on seized Iranian oil

The United States of America sold Iranian oil seized by the US Navy in the Arabian Sea for a total of $ 26.7 million.

The US Department of Justice reported that the volume of oil sold amounted to 1.1 million barrels, reports Kosatka.Media.

The U.S. government sold the seized petroleum products pursuant to a court order. The net proceeds of that sale, $26,681,397.67 before interest, may be directed, in whole or in part, to the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund now that the case has concluded.

On July 2, 2020, the United States also filed a complaint in the District of Columbia seeking to forfeit all petroleum-product cargo aboard four foreign-flagged oil tankers. The complaint alleged that the petroleum originated in Iran, and the sale of that petroleum benefitted the IRGC, a sanctioned Iranian entity. On Oct. 1, 2021, the court granted the government’s motion for default judgment and entered an order of forfeiture. In its opinion, the court found that the United States had sufficiently alleged that the petroleum products provided a source of influence over the IRGC because those properties were critical to furthering the affairs of the terrorist group’s enterprise.