DOJ Sues for Ownership of Oil Tanker That Allegedly Violated Venezuela Sanctions

The Department of Justice said on Feb. 27 that it is suing for forfeiture of the seized motor tanker Skipper, which allegedly violated American sanctions by carrying Venezuelan and Iranian oil.

The United States seized the vessel in the Caribbean Sea in December 2025, along with its cargo of 1.8 million barrels of crude oil, under a judicially authorized seizure warrant.

The United States began seizing ships in December 2025 to target the so-called shadow fleet evading U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and sanctions related to Iranian and Russian oil.

The department alleged in the new legal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the crude oil cargo on the Skipper was supplied by the Venezuelan state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.

It also alleged that the vessel was part of a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions by facilitating the sale of petroleum products to benefit Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is under U.S. sanctions.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s criminal division said the seizure of the Skipper and the lawsuit would help make the United States and the world safer “by disrupting the flow of millions of dollars to foreign terrorist organizations.”

“Because of the coordinated efforts of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners, a ghost tanker that for years secretly moved illicit oil from Iran and Venezuela around the globe has been taken off the seas,” Duva said in a statement.

In this forfeiture action, the federal government is suing the property itself, as opposed to any specific individuals or entities, on the theory that the property was involved in illicit conduct.

If the government prevails in the lawsuit, it will acquire ownership of the property without having to compensate its current owner.

The complaint states that between at least 2021 and the present, the Skipper transported crude oil from Iran and Venezuela and, through ship-to-ship transfers, delivered it to various locations worldwide, including countries run by what the U.S. government considers rogue regimes.

The complaint states that an unidentified confidential human source said the Skipper has a history of exporting crude oil from the José Terminal in Venezuela, which is owned and operated by Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. and its subsidiaries.

The Skipper allegedly hid its illicit activities “by spoofing its locations, flying false flags, and employing other tactics to obfuscate its routes and conceal its sanctions evasion,” according to the complaint.

Soon after the warrant was executed on the Skipper, personnel onboard the vessel told U.S. officials that it was initially headed toward Cuba, but plans changed and the crew was told to set course for an unidentified country in Asia, the complaint reads.

For facilitating illicit oil shipments, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the Skipper on Nov. 3, 2022.

The vessel allegedly delivered about 3 million barrels of crude oil from Iran to Syria in 2024.

It continued carrying illicit oil from Iran and Venezuela into 2025, including accepting a shipment of oil from Iran at least twice that year, the department said.

The Epoch Times was unable to reach the Skipper’s owner for comment.

The complaint identifies the owner as Windward Shipmanagement Corp. of Seychelles, a country in the Indian Ocean east of Africa.