Latest news with #oil smuggling
The Sun
4 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Iraqi businessman granted asylum in UK ‘led billion-dollar oil smuggling plot to help fund Iran's terror state'
AN IRAQI businessman granted asylum in the UK has been accused of running a billion dollar oil smuggling plot to finance global terrorism and domestic tyranny by Iran. The Trump administration claims Salim Ahmed Said, 47, has been running a network of firms passing off Iranian oil as a product of Iraq to avoid sanctions for at least five years. Trucks full of cash made from the scheme have allegedly been sent to Iran to finance the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iraqi Kurd Said became a British citizen after seeking refuge from the Saddam Hussein regime in the UK in the early 2000s. He owns a £27 million hotel in Kensington, West London, and runs two British companies blacklisted by the US Treasury. Said was placed under US sanctions on July 3 but UK authorities so far do not appear to have taken action against him. The US government said that some of the money from the plot had benefited the IRGC's elite Quds Force, a designated terrorist organisation which leads Tehran's overseas operations. The Quds Force is suspected of kidnapping and assassination plots in Britain, the US and Europe and supports terror groups including Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthi movement, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. US Treasury documents state: 'Salim Ahmed Said runs a network of companies that have been selling Iranian oil falsely declared as Iraqi oil since at least 2020. 'Said's companies use ship-to-ship transfers and other obfuscation techniques to hide their activities. 'Said's companies and vessels blend Iranian oil with Iraqi oil, which is then sold to Western buyers, via Iraq or the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as purely Iraqi oil using forged documentation to avoid sanctions.' 1
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Iraqi-British national sanctioned for ‘smuggling oil to fund Iran'
An Iraqi-British national has been sanctioned for allegedly smuggling oil to help fund the Iranian regime, US officials said. Salim Ahmed Said is accused of running a billion-dollar smuggling operation via a network of companies trading with Tehran. According to the US treasury, he forged documents and bribed officials in order to disguise the source of the oil, which was then sold to Western buyers via either Iraq or the United Arab Emirates, for at least five years. Some of the profits are alleged to have been sent to Iran to bankroll the activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, proscribed by the US as a terrorist group. Said's companies and vessels were allegedly used to blend Iranian and Iraqi oil – one of several 'obfuscation techniques' to launder the supplies so they could be sold on the legitimate market and allow Tehran to evade sanctions. He is also accused of spending millions of dollars bribing members of the Iraqi government in exchange for forged certificates stating the oil originated from Iraq. In addition to owning a UAE-based oil tanker company, with which he is said to have avoided a formal connection, Said allegedly owns two companies based in Britain: The Willett Hotel Limited and Robinbest Limited. 'As President Trump has made clear, Iran's behaviour has left it decimated. While it has had every opportunity to choose peace, its leaders have chosen extremism,' said Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary. '[We] will continue to target Tehran's revenue sources and intensify economic pressure to disrupt the regime's access to the financial resources that fuel its destabilising activities.' The treasury has also sanctioned several vessels said to have been used in the covert delivery of Iranian oil in a bid to intensify pressure on Iran's 'shadow fleet'.
