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Greek shipper pleads guilty to smuggling Iranian crude oil and will pay $2.4 million fine
A Greek shipping company has pleaded guilty to smuggling sanctioned Iranian crude oil and agreed to pay a $2.4 million fine, newly unsealed US court documents seen Thursday by The Associated Press show. The now-public case against Empire Navigation, which faces three years of probation under the plea agreement, marks the first public acknowledgement by US prosecutors that America seized some 1 million barrels of oil from the tanker Suez Rajan. The saga surrounding the ship further escalated tensions between Washington and Iran, even as they work toward a trade of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets in South ... (full story)