31JUL

Treasury names a Hormuz insurance racket

3 min read

09:24UTC

OFAC designated the two bodies selling IRGC-approved transit cover in the Strait of Hormuz, payable in Bitcoin, alongside four shadow-fleet tankers and a front that crowdsourced targeting tips.

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ConflictAssessed

Key takeaway

Tehran collects a Hormuz toll through insurance paperwork, with no gunboat and no signed agreement.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the US Treasury unit that administers American sanctions, designated Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority on Wednesday 29 July under Executive Order 13902⁠¹. The scheme those two bodies run makes cover compulsory: a vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz must buy IRGC-approved insurance against risks Iran itself creates. HormuzSafe accepts Bitcoin and other digital assets, and the sanctioned financier Babak Zanjani promoted it on social media.

HormuzSafe collects without putting a boarding party on a single deck. No port accepts an uninsured hull and no charterer books one; cargo owners, classification societies and flag states all demand valid cover before a ship moves. Forcing transits to buy Iranian-approved paper therefore extracts payment through the commercial liability chain, at the point where a refusal costs the shipowner the voyage rather than the ship. Washington's answer to a Hormuz toll has been that nobody may charge for passage at all, and this scheme collects without ever putting the question to a negotiator.

OFAC named eight shadow-fleet tankers in the same action, hulls that disguise Iranian crude through flag-of-convenience registration, opaque ownership and ship-to-ship transfers, among them WELL SAIL, LILY, AL SALMI and BREEZE V. That takes Treasury past 100 vessels designated this year⁠². A separate release the following day, under Executive Order 13224, named six targets across China, India, Russia and Iran⁠³.

DadeNegar Startup Studio neither moves cargo nor sells tickets. The IRGC-affiliated front ran a public website soliciting crowdsourced locations of American and Israeli equipment and relayed strike requests to the Guard⁠⁴. Iran has used front companies to procure components for decades, and the Zanjani network drew its own designation on 24 July. Buying targeting information from passers-by is a different function from buying centrifuge parts, and it places anyone who photographed a convoy inside the kill chain.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

The US Treasury's sanctions arm, OFAC, added two Iranian shipping insurance companies and eight tankers to its blacklist on 29 July, and an Iranian tech investment firm called DadeNegar Startup Studio the following day. This is part of a long-running effort to stop Iran from selling oil by cutting off the insurance and financial services that let its ships keep operating despite sanctions. The tankers and companies named will struggle to get insurance, dock at most ports, or use the international banking system.

What could happen next?

Consequence
The four newly sanctioned tankers will likely re-flag and seek alternative insurance within weeks, following the pattern of prior 2026 designation rounds.
Meaning
Naming the insurance company directly, rather than only the tankers, targets the mechanism that has let sanctioned vessels keep operating.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: The 2019 OFAC designation of the National Iranian Tanker Company established the template of sanctioning the insurance and shipping-management layer around Iranian oil exports rather than individual vessels, forcing repeated re-flagging cycles that this action against HormuzSafe now extends to the insurance underwriters themselves.

Counter-parallel: Unlike 2019, when NITC's designation measurably reduced Iranian tanker insurability for over a year, the pace of shadow-fleet reconstitution has accelerated through 2026's repeated OFAC rounds, suggesting the substitution network has grown more resilient with practice.

The dual-authority structure, Executive Order 13902 against the insurers and tankers, Executive Order 13224 against DadeNegar Startup Studio, reflects Treasury targeting two distinct financial functions: 13902 covers Iranian petroleum-sector facilitation, while 13224 covers terrorism-financing conduits, meaning DadeNegar is being treated as a financing vehicle rather than a petroleum-trade entity.

Each of the four newly designated shadow-fleet tankers now faces the same re-flagging cost structure prior rounds imposed: loss of P&I cover typically forces a vessel through a chain of shell-company ownership changes lasting four to eight weeks before it can resume port calls under a new flag.

Consensus view: RUSI's Sidharth Kaushal reads the OFAC pairing of Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and HormuzSafe under Executive Order 13902 as targeting the underwriting layer specifically, since shadow-fleet tankers cannot obtain port access or P&I cover in most jurisdictions without a domestic Iranian substitute insurer standing behind the hull.

Counter-view: Tehran's Institute for International Energy Studies argues the designation changes little in practice, pointing to the precedent of the April 2026 OFAC round after which sanctioned tankers simply re-flagged and re-insured through parallel Iranian entities within weeks.

Key tension: Whether targeting the insurance intermediaries themselves, rather than only the tankers, closes the substitution loophole that let prior sanctions rounds be absorbed so quickly.

Sources:US Department of the Treasury·US Department of the Treasury

Mentions:OFAC →Strait of Hormuz →Babak Zanjani →China →US Treasury →Iran →India →Tehran →Russia →Washington →Persian Gulf →RUSI →Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) →Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company →HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority →Executive Order 13902 →

First Reported In

Update #164 · The pause ends, and the map moves west

US Department of the Treasury· 31 Jul 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

OFAC names four in Zanjani network

The earlier Zanjani-network designation preceded this week's HormuzSafe and Persian Gulf Marine Insurance designations, both tied to Zanjani.

Occurred 24 Jul 2026

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This Event

Treasury names a Hormuz insurance racket

Tehran has found a way to collect a Hormuz toll through commercial liability rather than gunboats, and it works whether or not any diplomatic version of the same demand ever succeeds.

Led to

Treasury goes quiet on Iran for days

OFAC's 29 July designation of HormuzSafe and Persian Gulf Marine Insurance was its last Iran-related action before a four-day gap opened in the sanctions tempo.

Occurred 2 Aug 2026

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OFAC hits Iranian crypto exchanges in Dubai

OFAC expanded its recent Iran sanctions activity from marine insurers to digital-asset businesses.

Occurred 6 Aug 2026

Read story →

Different Perspectives

United States (Joint Maritime Information Center)

The JMIC, the US-led naval reporting cell, rated the Hormuz threat "severe" in its 25 October advisory, as reported by gCaptain, and warned of possible renewed mining. Eight days earlier it found no substantiation for the Guards' mine claims, while US-facilitated transits ran at about 34 a day.

United Kingdom (CPS and Counter Terrorism Policing)

The CPS charged two men under the National Security Act 2023 over the RAF Fairford incident, and Counter Terrorism Policing said it believes the foreign intelligence service involved is Iran's, LBC reported. The case now runs through the courts; both men are charged, not convicted.

Aden and Yemen's recognised government

The Houthis told people to leave Aden airport, in the government-held south, before a missile fell there on 28 October, AFP reported, and police reported a second attack that afternoon. The fight between Riyadh and the Houthis is landing on the south's main civilian airport.

Qatar (mediators)

Qatar-led mediators put new terms to Iran this week, which an Iranian official called "ideas, not a proposal". Riyadh framed the Tehran meeting as support for Qatari and Pakistani mediation, keeping Doha at the centre of the indirect channel.

Korea Shipowners' Association

The association said the ships Iran listed were sub-chartered to an overseas oil company, not owned by Sinokor, carried no South Korean crew, and that Sinokor was unaware of the warning. South Korea's shipowners are contesting whose vessels the notice covers before it takes effect.

Kuwait (foreign ministry)

Kuwait summoned Iran's ambassador, Mohammad Toutounji, and handed him a protest note over the embassy's denial that its citizen took part in the alleged plot against Interior Minister Fahad Al-Yousef. Kuwait is answering through its courts and a diplomatic protest, citing international law and the UN Charter.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.