US Sanctions Chandigarh Couple Behind Fake Flag Empire for Iran's Shadow Fleet

The US Treasury has sanctioned an India-based husband-and-wife team it accuses of impersonating flag administrations since at least 2014, supplying fraudulent registries, flags and certificates to tankers hauling Iranian oil. Suniel Kumar Sharma and Jaspreet Preeti Shahid, based in Chandigarh, now sit on the OFAC list alongside 11 associated individuals and entities, the latest strike in Washington's Operation Economic Outcast against Tehran's shadow fleet.

The numbers behind the fake-flag problem are large and getting larger. Maritime intelligence firm Windward identified 580 falsely flagged vessels in the IMO database as of August, a 23.4% jump from the end of 2025, and counted 22 fraudulent registries operating worldwide. For coastal states, Treasury warns the stakes are financial as much as geopolitical: ships sailing under fraudulent registrations typically lack valid protection and indemnity insurance, potentially exposing coastlines and ports to enormous liability if a casualty occurs.

How the network operated

According to Treasury, the pair's entry point came in 2014, when they attempted to pose as Dominica's maritime authority. From there the network built websites claiming to register ships on behalf of jurisdictions including Guyana, Aruba, Mali, Mozambique, Malawi, Sint Maarten and Timor-Leste — none of which, Treasury alleges, had authorized the arrangement.

Sharma did not stop at website-fronted registries. In 2023 he established the Singapore-based Eswatini Maritime Affairs and International Ship Registry, which Treasury says has continued providing flagging services to Iranian oil carriers even after Eswatini's authorities publicly disowned the company. The sanctioned tanker Ping Shun is among the vessels linked to the operation.

Washington also cited the April seizure of the Majestic X, a tanker carrying Iranian oil while falsely claiming Guyanese registration. Other vessels tied to the network include the Lattafa, Binary Star and Vera.

What does this mean for shipowners and insurers?

OFAC has paired the designations with a fresh industry alert spelling out the sanctions risks tied to falsely flagged vessels. The commercial message is direct. Any charterer, insurer, port agent or trader that touches a vessel flying a fraudulent flag now faces a higher probability of US secondary sanctions exposure, on top of the existing counterparty risk inherent in Iranian-linked trades.

The designation of a Singapore-registered entity also signals that OFAC is reaching beyond the ship operators themselves into the service layer — registries, agents and intermediaries that keep shadow-fleet tonnage technically paper-compliant. For legitimate flag administrations, the case underlines a due-diligence burden: Eswatini had to publicly disown Sharma's registry, and Guyana's name was falsely attached to the seized Majestic X.

A widening campaign

The action builds on October's sanctions against shipping agents in Singapore and Dubai, along with a Greek-Panamanian law firm Washington accused of facilitating Iranian trades. Together, the measures sketch an enforcement arc that now covers registration fraud, agency services and legal facilitation — the full administrative scaffolding that lets sanctioned oil keep moving.

The Windward data suggests the enforcement gap remains wide. A fleet of 580 falsely flagged vessels, growing 23.4% within months, dwarfs the handful of designations and seizures announced so far, and Treasury's own alert implicitly concedes that detection, not punishment, is the current bottleneck.

Expect OFAC to keep working down the list of 22 identified fraudulent registries, with the pace of designations — and the exposure of coastal states to uninsured tonnage — likely to drive the next wave of alerts and enforcement actions.