Victims of the September 11, 2001, assaults requested a US decide to order the seizure of Iranian crude oil from a tanker owned by an American personal fairness agency, to assist fulfill a $3.61 billion judgment in opposition to Iran over the assaults, Reuters experiences.
The request got here in filings on Thursday with the US District Courtroom in Manhattan.
Dozens of assault victims and their households stated the “Suez Rajan”, owned by Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Administration and idling in Southeast Asia, seemed to be carrying as much as 1 million barrels of Iranian oil, violating US sanctions.
They stated the oil must be bought to assist cowl their February 2018 judgment in opposition to Iran over that nation’s offering materials assist to Al-Qaeda associated to the assaults. Iran has lengthy denied such claims.
Oaktree has about $166 billion of property beneath administration. Neither the agency nor its London-based Fleetscape unit, which funds the Suez Rajan, instantly responded on Friday to requests for remark.
The request got here after the non-profit, United Towards Nuclear Iran, which makes use of satellite tv for pc photos to trace tanker motion, wrote Oaktree on 15 February that the “Suez Rajan” appeared to have taken on the oil from one other tanker two days earlier.
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Even when the oil had been seized, gross sales proceeds at present costs LCOc1 would cowl solely about 3 per cent of the $3.61 billion judgment.
Victims stated that about $3.44 billion is excellent, with the Nationwide Iranian Oil Co and Nationwide Iranian Tanker Corp, each beneath US sanctions, among the many entities accountable to pay it.
Judgments in opposition to accused state sponsors of terrorism are sometimes not possible to implement.
On 18 February, Fleetscape stated the “Suez Rajan” was operated by Empire Navigation, and that it had no function working Empire’s fleet. It additionally stated it took accusations of US sanctions violations significantly.
Empire, based mostly in Athens, stated on 21 February it was additionally investigating the matter. Almost 3,000 individuals died on September 11, 2001, when planes had been flown into New York’s World Commerce Centre, the Pentagon in northern Virginia and a Pennsylvania area.
The instances are Hoglan et al v Oaktree Capital Administration LP et al, US District Courtroom, Southern District of New York, No. 11-07550; and In re Terrorist Assaults on September 11, 2001 in the identical courtroom, No. 03-md-01570.
