SINGAPORE, Aug 25 - The United States (US) imposed sanctions on Singapore-based Wellbred Capital and its trading firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Switzerland, citing links with Iran, as it steps up measures to target Tehran's global financial links.
The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said on its website on Monday that the company had ties to Iranian oil shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani.
"Shamkhani built Wellbred as a company outside the network’s Iranian business, though Shamkhani is ultimately responsible for Wellbred’s operations," it added in a statement outlining the measures targeting nearly 60 companies, individuals, and ships.
Wellbred did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also sanctioned were Dubai-based Wellbred Trading FZCO, Wellbred Trading SA in Geneva and its French biofuels refinery La Nivernaise de Raffinage SAS.
The company's website stated that alongside its headquarters in Singapore, Wellbred trades in oil, naphtha, petrochemicals, and liquefied petroleum gas and has offices in the UAE, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria.
OFAC previously designated individuals, entities, and vessels forming part of a vast shipping empire controlled by Shamkhani in July 2025 and April 2026.
Shamkhani, the son of now-deceased senior Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani, operates a massive fleet of tankers and containerships.
It said that the network ferries oil and petroleum products from Iran and Russia, as well as other cargo, to buyers around the world, generating profits running into tens of billions of dollars.