US imposes sanctions on Malaysian firm over sale of Iranian petroleum
It was reported that the sanctions by the US treasury department were imposed on Sense Shipping and Trading Sdn Bhd. (Wikipedia pic)
PETALING JAYA: The United States has imposed sanctions on a Malaysian firm over the alleged production, sale and shipment of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum.
The sanctions by the US treasury department were imposed on Sense Shipping and Trading Sdn Bhd, Reuters reported.
Also hit by sanctions were two Singaporean companies, Asia Fuel Pte Ltd and Unicious Energy Pte Ltd, and six Iran-based petrochemical manufacturers.
Washington accused Asia Fuel of facilitating the shipment of petroleum products worth millions of dollars to customers in East Asia.
“Iran is increasingly turning to buyers in East Asia to sell its petrochemical and petroleum products, in violation of US sanctions,” treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Brian Nelson was quoted as saying.
PETALING JAYA: The United States has imposed sanctions on a Malaysian firm over the alleged production, sale and shipment of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum.
The sanctions by the US treasury department were imposed on Sense Shipping and Trading Sdn Bhd, Reuters reported.
Also hit by sanctions were two Singaporean companies, Asia Fuel Pte Ltd and Unicious Energy Pte Ltd, and six Iran-based petrochemical manufacturers.
Washington accused Asia Fuel of facilitating the shipment of petroleum products worth millions of dollars to customers in East Asia.
“Iran is increasingly turning to buyers in East Asia to sell its petrochemical and petroleum products, in violation of US sanctions,” treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Brian Nelson was quoted as saying.
kt comments: Malaysia is NOT obliged to observe US sanctions but only UN sanctions!
According to Reuters, the sanctions were slapped on firms the US treasury accused of being involved in facilitating the sale and shipment of petroleum and petrochemicals on behalf of Triliance Petrochemical Co Ltd.
Triliance Petrochemical was hit with sanctions by Washington three years ago.
The action freezes US assets of those hit with sanctions and generally bars Americans from dealing with them.
Those who engage in certain transactions with the companies also risk being hit with sanctions.
Last year, the US treasury imposed sanctions against a Malaysian group, accusing it of engaging in “the cruel trafficking of endangered and threatened wildlife and the products of brutal poaching”.
It had named Malaysian national Teo Boon Ching, the “Teo Boon Ching wildlife trafficking transnational criminal organization” and Malaysian company Sunrise Greenland.
It said the organisation specialised in the transportation of rhino horn, ivory and pangolins from Africa.
You will find that Malaysian commercial banks will not touch ANY overseas transactions for a company once it is sanctioned by the US Treasury, even Euro transactions are at risk .
ReplyDeleteOtherwise the bank's precious US Dollar correspondent bank account in New York risks being frozen or booted out. That is an existential threat for any Malaysian bank.
If , for example, Maybank's New York correspondent bank account got frozen by the US Treasury, next morning, Maybank's share price will collapse faster than the China Spy Balloon hit by a AIM-9X.
So, in theory Bank Negara takes no action because Malaysia only recognises UNSC sanctions, in reality the sanctioned company becomes a paria operator in international business.
It's a cruel world...but it is what it is.
USA is basically telling the Malaysian Government and Malaysian companies.... you want to do business with USA / US Dollars or you want to do business with Iran ?
Time to choose.
Time to choose indeed!
Delete"business with USA / US Dollars"
Very soon, collaborating with monetary instruments outside US jurisdictions will be the norm. Arab world, ASEAN, Latin countries ALl have bilateral or multilateral forex agreements based on non US$.
Ooop… don't forget too, many EU countries also have such trade transactional deals falling outside US$.
Within the next 5yrs, that 'mighty' US$ would be in the same remnant image of pommie £!