The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on Zhoushan Jinrun Petroleum Transfer Co., Ltd., a Chinese oil terminal operator implicated in an elaborate Iranian sanctions evasion scheme that has enabled Tehran to covertly sell oil and funnel hundreds of millions of dollars through global financial systems. The move, announced by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), underscores Washington’s intensified efforts to disrupt the economic lifelines of Iran’s energy sector, which it accuses of financing terrorism and destabilizing the Middle East.

Zhoushan Jinrun, based in China’s Zhejiang province, is accused of “knowingly engaging in a significant transaction” for the purchase and transport of Iranian petroleum products. According to the US State Department, the company facilitated large-scale oil movements from Iran, undermining international sanctions and contributing to a financial network that supports Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other sanctioned entities.

The designation is part of a wider package targeting several entities and individuals linked to Iranian oil smuggling, and it follows a trail first brought to light by an investigation from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Swedish public broadcaster SVT in 2020. The original investigation revealed a sprawling sanctions evasion network that exploited opaque corporate structures, shell companies, and offshore financial jurisdictions to obscure the true origins and destinations of Iranian oil revenues.

At the center of this scheme was HMEA Co.,........

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