US Warns Shipping Firms Over Hormuz Payments, Sanctions Threatened
The US warned shipping companies on Friday that paying Iran for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz could expose them to sanctions, widening the risk beyond American firms to non-US maritime participants. The alert from the Office of Foreign Assets Control said payments tied to Iranian ports can trigger sanctions even when they are made in cash, digital assets, offsets, informal swaps, in-kind payments, charitable donations, or at Iranian embassies.
The warning lands as the Strait of Hormuz has become far harder to use. About 3,000 ships normally pass through the channel each month, but traffic has dropped to a handful each day after Iran severely limited movement there since the war began in February.
OFAC widens sanctions risk
The Office of Foreign Assets Control said on Friday that US persons and companies are generally banned from paying Iranian government entities. It also said maritime industry participants involved with vessels calling at Iranian ports face significant sanctions risk under multiple sanctions authorities targeting Iran's shipping sector and ports. The agency added that it will continue to aggressively target Iran's main revenue-generating sectors, in particular its petroleum and petrochemical sectors.
Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, said his agency would “relentlessly target the regime's ability to generate, move and repatriate funds, and pursue anyone enabling Tehran's attempts to evade sanctions”. That language matters for ship operators because the warning is not limited to direct bank transfers. OFAC listed cash, digital assets, offsets, informal swaps, other in-kind payments, charitable donations, and payments at Iranian embassies as forms of payment that can bring sanctions exposure.
Iranian ports and exchange houses
The Treasury action also reached beyond shipping. On Friday, the US Treasury sanctioned three Iranian foreign currency exchange houses, saying they had converted oil revenue into more usable currencies. The move is part of the same effort to squeeze the channels Iran uses to move revenue generated from trade.
Iran has described the US interception of ships entering and leaving Iranian ports under the blockade as “piracy”. Hamidreza Haji Bababei, the deputy speaker of Iran's Parliament, said last week that the first toll revenue had been deposited with Iran's Central Bank. Iran says it has collected tolls from ships to navigate freely through the strait, but the warning from OFAC now puts any company making such payments on notice that the method of payment itself can become the problem.
Strait of Hormuz traffic cuts
The Strait of Hormuz remains a crucial shipping channel for oil and other goods, including food, medicines and technological supplies. UNHCR said on Friday that the closure of key maritime routes has forced the use of longer and more expensive alternatives to transport aid. US Central Command said on Friday that 45 commercial ships have been told to turn around since the blockade began on 13 April.
For shipping companies, the practical line from Washington is straightforward: any payment for passage through the Strait of Hormuz now carries a sanctions warning, regardless of whether the money is moved through a bank, a crypto transfer, a barter-like offset, or a donation structure. The next pressure point is the same one already shaping the route: whether maritime operators keep using Iranian ports and pay the tolls Iran says it has collected, or reroute under the blockade and the sanctions risk that now follows the payment.
