While ship owners may still consider bookings of carriage of goods to Iran, the United States are taking actions to show the world that the Iran sanctions is not just a piece of paper.
On August 6th 2012, a scathing report issued by New York State Department of Financial Services accused Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), one of the top five largest Banks based in the UK, of “apparent grave violations of law and regulation”. According to this report, SCB schemed with the Government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions for at least ten years, involving at least $250 billion, and reaping SCB hundreds of millions of dollars in fees. Violation of law is listed in this report, the seventh of which is stated as “unauthorized Iranian transactions”. To give a detailed example, SCB was approached by Iran’s central bank and acted as recipient for daily oil sales from the National Iranian Oil Company from 2001. SCB’s license to operate in the State of New York might be revoked if it cannot prove the transaction lawful.
We hereby remind ship owners/operators to be extremely careful with carriage of any goods to Iran. The P&I clubs or insurers may have offices in the United States; therefore, US sanctions should also be taken into consideration by the ship side, which may have no connection with US except their P&I clubs/insurers. If the cargoes turned out to be prohibited under US Iran sanctions, the P&I clubs would have to refuse cover for the voyage to protect themselves.
See attached file : ALCO20120056 Standard Chartered Bank accused of Scheming with Iran to hide transactions.pdf
渣打银行面临蓄意隐瞒与伊朗金融交易的指控
船东现在可能仍然会考虑承运货物前往伊朗，而美国正在用行动证明其伊朗制裁法规并非一纸空文。
今年8月6日，纽约州金融服务局（New York State Department of Financial Services）发布报告，严厉地指控总部位于英国，排名世界前五之一的渣打银行，认为其有重大的违反法律法规之行为。 根据此份报告，渣打银行在过去的十年间，蓄意与伊朗政府进行往来并且向执法监管部门隐瞒大约六万笔秘密交易，涉及至少2500亿美元的资金，并为渣打银行获利数百万美元。渣打银行此行为所违反的法律法规在报告中被逐一列出，其中第七项就是 “未经授权，非法的与伊朗进行金融交易” 。举一个具体的例子，渣打银行从2001年起受命于伊朗中央银行，作为伊朗国家石油公司日常石油交易买卖的受让方。若不能证明其交易的合法性，渣打银行纽约州分部的牌照可能会面临撤销。
我司在此提醒船东及船舶经营者，对任何前往伊朗的货物保持高度警戒。由于保赔协会或保险人可能在美国也有分部，尽管船东可能除保险提供者之外与美国毫无联系，也必须要将美国伊朗制裁法律作为承运的考虑因素。如果承运的货物最后被认定为违反美国伊朗制裁的法律，那么保赔协会将不得不拒绝承保以保护其自身的安全。
以上由 ANDREW LIU & CO.,LTD 编译，应以英文为准！
详细信息请参阅附件。
