Through several of his front companies, Cambis used Iranian funds to purchase oil tankers and disguised the Iranian origin of oil transported on these vessels, the Treasury said.

“Today we are lifting the veil on an intricate Iranian scheme that was designed to evade international oil sanctions,” said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. “We will continue to expose deceptive Iranian practices, and to sanction those individuals and entities who participate in these schemes.”

Cambis, President of Impire Shipping Limited (Impire), established his shipping company, as well as several front companies, to purchase oil tankers while disguising the fact that the tankers were being purchased on behalf of the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), the Treasury said, adding that these front companies were used to obscure the fact that these vessels, which are capable of carrying roughly 200 million dollars worth of oil per shipment, are the property of the Iranian government.

According to the Treasury another front company, Libra Shipping, operates the vessels Cambis and Impire purchased on behalf of NITC with the aim of loading them with Iranian oil supplied by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), while these operations are conducted through a series of ship-to-ship transfers in an attempt to mask the fact that the true origin of the oil is from Iran and to introduce it into the global market as if it were non-Iranian oil.

The Treasury extended the sanctions to 10 companies in Greece, four in the United Arab Emirates and eight vessels that it said Cambis used to help Iran ship oil abroad.

The Treasury said the four UAE-based firms were Iranian government front companies.

 The four companies are Sima General Trading, Polinex General Trading, Asia Energy General Trading and Synergy General Trading.

The sanctions ban Americans and U.S. companies from undertaking transactions involving the companies and vessels named.

The development marks the latest in what for more than a year has been an effort by the Obama administration to enforce — a global embargo on Iranian crude oil amid mounting international pressure on Iran’s nuclear program.

As 400 titans of shipping and government from 50 countries assemble today for a two-day international counter-piracy conference in Dubai, experts are urging multilateral action to stem escalating torture of seafarers kidnapped at gunpoint.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan said the “threat posed by maritime piracy to global trade, and to the region’s security and economic well-being, continues to be grave. Much progress has been made since the last time leaders from government, the global maritime industry, and experts and policymakers joined together in Dubai, in April 2011. However, the persistence of pirate activity off the coast of Somalia reaffirms the UAE’s belief that more work towards a comprehensive international counter-piracy response is required.”

To date, an estimated 235 hostages remain in the hands of heavily armed high-seas marauders awaiting ransom payment by vessel owners. An estimated 35 mariners did not survive their encounters with plundering pirates in 2011.

Dr. Theodore Karasik, director of Research and Development at Institute for Near East & Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai said all indicators point to a piracy crisis that has gone from bad to worse for shipping crews caught in the crossfire.

Karasik lauded UAE senior officials for hosting the piracy conference to push for real solutions that will help curtail nightmarish hostage-taking episodes for the long term.

In 2011, 3,863 seafarers were assaulted by pirates during initial raids and 1,206 people were held captive by pirate gangs. 645 hostages captured in 2010 remained in pirate hands in 2011, whilst 35 hostages captured by Somali pirates died and 8 were killed by pirates during attacks; 19 died during rescue efforts or while trying to escape.

Sources: International Maritime Bureau, Gulf News

Secretary of economic and trade in the Greek Embassy in Dubai said that the first quarter of this year witnessed  from 60% in trade exchanges between both countries, with total Greek exports to the UAE during this period, 398 million dirhams (85 million euro) growth of 61.4% from the previous year and imported from United Arab Emirates worth 93 million dirhams ( 20 million euros) growth of 18.3% compared with the same period last year.

At a news conference to announce the forum Dr. Iitimad, President of the Organizing Committee said that the event is a great opportunity to build and strengthen commercia and navy ties between the Arab and gReek side, which revived the hopes of the market by creating a balanced trade to ensure investment opportunities and effective development.

UAE now hosts many international companies, including more than 135 Greek shipping companies mostly, according to Emirates news agency.