State-Owned UAE Oil Company Claims US Seized Iraqi Oil Heading to China

Fujairah International Oil & Gas Corporation, an oil company owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, the ruler of the emirate of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, claims that it owns oil seized by the U.S. Filing their ownership claim in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Fujairah said it purchased the oil from an undisclosed Iraqi supplier and sold it to an unidentified Chinese buyer, where the oil was heading when it was seized. The Department of Justice alleges Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and IRGC-Qods Force, both U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations, schemed to deliver the oil to a customer abroad and that the origins of the oil were disguised using ship-to-ship transfers, falsified documents, and other means to trick the owners of the Liberia-flagged Achilleas -- the ship the oil was seized on -- into transporting the oil (see 2102030018).