U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Karnakis & Karnakis for Facilitating Iranian Shadow Shipping Operations

The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on Wednesday against Karnakis & Karnakis, a law firm operating in Greece and Panama, alleging that the firm has for years supplied legal support to Iranian shipping networks.

In the same action, the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an administrative subpoena to further an investigation into a Greek bank’s possible connections to Iran, a Treasury statement said, without naming the institution.

FinCEN also sent information requests to six additional unnamed European banks regarding their relationships with Iranian financial entities that are under U.S. sanctions.

“Supporting the Iranian regime will not escape detection, whether you are moving oil illicitly at sea or operating from a law firm’s corner office,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned in a release.

This month, Washington has postponed any military strike against Iran in the conflict it jointly launched with Israel on February 28. Instead, the U.S. has maintained its blockade of Iranian ports and continued to impose a series of sanctions targeting Iranian shipping networks and their facilitators.

“The firm had long established shell companies to conceal the true owners of vessels transporting Iranian oil, petrochemicals, and steel,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.

He added that these front companies were used by networks that sold millions of barrels of Iranian oil to benefit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force and the Houthis.

Karnakis & Karnakis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In parallel, the Treasury sanctioned Singapore‑ and UAE‑based shipping agents that it accused of directly aiding Iranian shadow‑fleet operations.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis and Sanjeev Miglani)

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