The US imposed sanctions Tuesday on more than 50 individuals, companies and vessels accused of supporting an alleged illicit shipping and sanctions evasion network linked to Iranian oil shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the Treasury Department announced.

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said the measures are part of Washington's broader campaign to increase economic pressure on Iran following what it described as Tehran's renewed “destabilizing attacks” in the Strait of Hormuz.

The sanctions target financial facilitators, shipping executives, logistics firms and vessel operators based in multiple countries. As a result of the designations, all property and interests in property of the sanctioned individuals and entities subject to US jurisdiction are blocked.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the sanctions are intended to dismantle a major financial network supporting the Iranian government.

"The Iranian regime survives on deception, and the Shamkhani network is one of its most profitable engines," he said. "Treasury is shutting down the financial infrastructure that allows the regime to continue its threats to US national security and global shipping."

In a separate statement, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the action aims to disrupt Shamkhani’s “illicit shipping and sanctions evasion network” amid Iran’s attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

He claimed that the network uses Iranian and foreign nationals, companies and offshore shell firms to "trade sanctioned goods and recover the proceeds of those trades." (AA)