A US Department of Justice spokesman said the seized Iranian oil had been sold and the proceeds would go to the US Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund. The United States has sold more than a million barrels of Iranian fuel seized under its sanctions programme last year, a Department of Justice official said, as another ship with intercepted Iranian crude oil sails to a US port.
The seizures are part of Washington’s tough economic sanctions on Tehran imposed over its nuclear programme and the US designation of a number of Iranian groups as “terrorists”, continuing decades of rancour between the two nations. Iran rejects US accusations of wrongdoing.
Iran: Armed forces member involved in nuclear scientist’s killing
Iran celebrates different revolution anniversary under COVID-19
In a new approach last year, the administration of former US President Donald Trump used civil forfeiture procedures to seize some 1.2 million barrels of gasoline it said were being sent from Iran to Venezuela aboard four tankers.
The shipments, the largest seizure by Washington of Iranian fuel to date, were transferred to other vessels and sent to the US, where the fuel was meant to be sold and the proceeds distributed to a fund for US victims of “state-sponsored terrorism”.
Department of Justice spokesman Marc Raimondi told Reuters news agency this week that the sale of the cargoes had been completed, adding that the government was “still working out the final expenses”.
“The petroleum has been seized, and an interlocutory sale has preserved the cash value of the petroleum, which is now held by the US Marshals Service,” he said. The value of the gasoline was not known but was likely worth tens of millions of dollars based on benchmark European gasoline prices.
Raimondi said the department still needs the US District Court in Washington, DC to enter an order of forfeiture “and then the funds will be transferred to the US Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund”.
The fund was established by the US government in 2015 to award compensation to individuals who suffered harm resulting from the acts of those designated by the US as “state sponsors of terrorism”.
Source: aljazeera.com
Thursday, May 7, 2026
