Free Republic

Oil smuggling has been so enormously profitable that no matter how many obstacles Washington and Brussels put up, the barrels kept flowing. With a daily turnover of $1 billion, the black market has been just too attractive. For the first time, however, I see cracks in the illicit business. Millions of barrels of unsold Iranian and Russian crude are accumulating in storage. The reason isn’t just more U.S. and European sanctions and political pressure. Sure, they’ve helped. But the key factor is more mundane: The buyers of sanctioned crude oil have plenty of alternative aboveboard barrels available — at reasonable...

Gal Luft, a Dual U.S.-Israeli Citizen, Allegedly Evaded FARA Registration While Working to Advance the Interests of China in the United States and Sought to Broker the Illicit Sales of Chinese-Manufactured Weapons and Iranian Oil to China... U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As alleged, Gal Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen and co-head of a Maryland think tank, engaged in multiple, serious criminal schemes. He subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States to seek to promote Chinese policies by acting through a former high-ranking U.S. Government official; he acted as a broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian...

In recent weeks, there has been increasing American interest in a previously little-watched judicial saga unfolding in New York district court. Like a Turkish soap opera, it involves a dashing businessman with a pop-star wife, corruption allegations, leaked tapes of private conversations and intrigue at the highest levels of government. The trial of Reza Zarrab on charges of evading Iran sanctions, including any revelations he makes about corruption in the Turkish government, could have significant political and economic implications for Turkey. It could also damage already fraught relations between Turkey and the United States.

Turkish autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan is coming to Washington, DC, on May 16 loaded for bear.  He has an ambitious agenda and apparently feels he can achieve it all because he holds “trump” cards against the President of the United States. Erdogan and his proxies have publicly said they want to convince the United States to jettison its budding alliance with the Syrian Democratic Union (PYD) and its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish group that has become the tip of the spear in the fight against ISIS in Syria. On this point, they will encounter resistance...

The Biden-Harris administration openly admitted in early October that Iran has become enriched under its policies and leadership.... The Biden-Harris administration has seemingly eased sanctions against Iran in recent years, allowing the Islamic regime to rake in billions from oil revenues — and a new report from the administration itself published in October outlines exactly how much the regime has made.... During the Trump administration’s tenure and “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Iran, Tehran’s oil revenues fell from roughly $65 billion in 2018 to $28 billion in 2019, and even lower at $16 billion in 2020... When President Joe Biden...

With a president like Joe Biden, who needs enemies? It’s a question worth asking as Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, recently announced his administration is rolling back strong Trump-era sanctions, including restrictions on its sale of oil. For a nation sitting on 157 billion barrels of reserve oil ($11.7 trillion value in the current market), and the ability to export more than $2 million barrels of excess capacity per day worth $140 million, it is a substantial economic reward that could end up fueling terror in the region. It’s estimated that Iran funneled more than $16 billion...

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, February 11, 2020 The Department of Justice today announced that the following defendants were arrested and charged by Complaint on charges of conspiracy and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) based on their attempt to transact in sanctioned Iranian oil: Nicholas Hovan, 33, of New York, NY;Zhenyu Wang, a/k/a “Bill Wang,” 39, of Dallas, TX;Robert Thwaites, 30, of Dallas, TX;Nicholas James Fuchs, 26, of Dallas, TX; andDaniel Ray Lane, 38, of McKinney, TX. The defendants are each charged with one count of conspiracy and one count...

Kerry Has Investments in Companies Accused of Violating Iran Sanctions Daniel Halper December 21, 2012 12:59 PM John Kerry, who will be nominated later today to be the next secretary of state, is the richest member of the U.S. Senate. His estimated net worth is, at minimum, $198.65 million, according to disclosure forms. Kerry's disclosure forms also reveal that he has invested in companies accused of doing business with Iran. One of the companies Kerry is invested in is called Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (Petrobras), it's a Brazilian-based oil and gas corporation. Disclosure forms reveal that Kerry has between $150,000...