Greek owner removed from US sanctions list after tanker falls victim to identity theft

On 21 January, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced it had delisted both Altomare and its 2010-built VLCC Kallista from the Specially Designated Nationals list.

Altomare was initially sanctioned in November during an Iran-related enforcement action. At that time, OFAC alleged that in early 2025, Kallista “transported nearly 4M barrels of Iranian oil in multiple shipments on behalf of Sepehr Energy Jahan,” which US officials describe as the oil-sales arm of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff.

After the reversal, Altomare expressed relief and reiterated that neither the company nor Kallista had ever traded with Iran or any other US-sanctioned entity. Instead, the owner said it was the victim of maritime identity theft, in which a sanctioned imposter vessel “used fake documents and spoofed tracking signals to masquerade as Kallista while trading to Iran.”

The company had previously voiced its shock and disappointment at the initial designation, noting that the tanker had been operating under reputable, reliable charterers.

The vessel believed to have impersonated Kallista is Limas, a 2003-built VLCC listed by Equasis as being under Chinese ownership. According to the investigation, Limas falsely broadcast Kallista’s identity on its automatic identification system (AIS). In addition, Wikiran has published documents indicating that Kallista’s name was used for shipments actually carried out by Limas.

“The case underscores a critical vulnerability in maritime enforcement,” Wikiran noted. “Without stronger, more reliable mechanisms to verify and track vessel identities, sophisticated identity-theft schemes will continue to cause wrongful designations – potentially implicating innocent ships and undermining the integrity of sanctions regimes.”