The United States has filed a lawsuit to seize a cargo of oil it says came from Iran rather than Iraq, Reuters reported.
“The lawsuit filed with the U.S. District of Columbia on Tuesday alleges that Iran sought to mask the origin of the oil by transferring it to several vessels before it ended up aboard the Liberian-flagged Achilleas tanker destined for China,” the news agency reported.
Washington Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its elite Qods Force to be behind the illegal trade.
Both organizations have been declared as foreign terrorist groups by the United States.
"Participants in the scheme attempted to disguise the origin of the oil using ship-to-ship transfers, falsified documents, and other means, and provided a fraudulent bill of lading to deceive the owners of the Achilleas into loading the oil in question," the Department of Justice said in a statement, according to Reuters.
There have been no comments from Iranian side on the tanker as yet.
