U.S. sanctions a law firm accused of building Iran’s shadow-fleet architecture
On October 21, the United States Treasury sanctioned Panama- and Greece-based Karnakis and Karnakis, Singapore- and UAE-based shipping agents, and associated vessels, alleging that the law firm created companies used to conceal Iranian commodity shipments.
Inside Practice · OCTOBER 22, 2026 · 1 MIN READ
On October 21, the United States Treasury sanctioned Panama- and Greece-based Karnakis and Karnakis, Singapore- and UAE-based shipping agents, and associated vessels, alleging that the law firm created companies used to conceal Iranian commodity shipments. Treasury said the designations were made under Executive Order 13902, while FinCEN used section 5318(k) of the Bank Secrecy Act to issue what it described as its first administrative subpoena to investigate a Greek bank’s potential Iran links. For law firms, this makes entity formation, ship registration and ownership structuring explicit sanctions-risk activities, not merely administrative services peripheral to a client’s trade. Firms advising maritime, commodities or corporate-services clients should connect beneficial-ownership diligence, matter acceptance and payment screening because exposure may arise from the service architecture even when the immediate client is not yet designated.