Hansa India, a ship owned by Hamburg-based Leonhardt & Blumberg and chartered by that firm to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (“IRISL”), was boarded earlier this month in the Gulf of Suez by U.S. troops, who discovered AK-47 ammunition that Iran was exporting in violation of U.N. sanctions. The eight containers of ammo were believed to be destined for the Syrian army or the militant group Hezbollah. German authorities intervened and requested that the U.S. Navy divert the Hansa India to Malta where Maltese customs officials seized the cargo.

Lloyd’s List reports today that German prosecutors searched the offices of Leonhardt & Blumberg looking for evidence relating to the sanctions-busting shipment.

“I regret that bullet casings [sic] have been carried on the ship, but there was no possibility for me to prevent that,” Frank Leonhardt told Lloyd’s List.

I don’t know, but maybe not chartering the ship to IRISL might have been a good start at preventing illegal weapons shipments.

The standard charter contract includes a ban on carrying such cargo. Mr Leonhardt added that he was in talks with the charterer and that IRISL had put the responsibility for the incident on the freight forwarder.

As loyal readers know, we here at Export Law Blog are never shy about blaming freight forwarders for export violations, but I think IRISL is pushing it here. A more credible argument would be that somehow or other a shipment of pistachios had miraculously metamorphosed into bullets and cartridges.

Interestingly, although the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) added what it thought were all the IRISL’s vessels to the SDN list, thereby prohibiting U.S. persons from having any transactions with the listed vessels, the Hansa India was not among them. Interestingly this suggests that there may be a number of vessels chartered to IRISL that aren’t listed. Because IRISL is itself sanctioned, dealing with these chartered vessels could also be seen as a violation of OFAC rules even though the vessel itself hasn’t been placed on the SDN list.

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