Iranian shipping line loses Maltese agent

A Maltese shipping agent that acted as a front for Iran's blacklisted fleet of shipping containers and freight transporters has dispensed of all his shareholding in the company and no longer represents the Iranian ship line.

Adrian Baldacchino, the director of the Royal Med Agency, hosted the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line when it transferred all its ships to a new, private company called Hafiz Darya Shipping (HDS).

The shipping agent has deposited his shares at the Maltese courts and broken off all relations with the Iranian line.

Irisl first set up base in Malta in 2004, but it later got slapped with United States and United Kingdom trading bans and its ships blacklisted from entering several ports under EU sanctions.

Using its Royal Med address, Irisl transferred all its ships to HDS, changed their names to Western-sounding ones, and continued trading as normal.

Baldacchino had also been placed under US sanctions because his company hosted the Iranian vessels.

The latest sanctions are expected to come into force as of 1 December, 2011.

Malta has been highly cooperative in furnishing the US with information on the activities of Irisl, whose ships were renamed and passed on to HDS to bypass the US sanctions.

Former US ambassador Molly Bordonaro had noted that it would be "unusual for the GOM to decline to take action on a direct USG request" according to a leaked embassy cable published on Wikileaks.

Malta is revealed by the cables to have worked behind the scenes to strictly limit Iranian access, although it is also clear that there was no intention of shutting down Irisl's operations in Malta.

The government formally adopted EU sanctions against various branches and subsidiaries of Irisl, which used a network of front companies in Malta to evade restrictions on its trade.

An investigation by the New York Times found that Irisl set up 42 companies in Malta registered on various addresses to transfer its ships' ownership to these subsidiaries. Almost half of Irisl's fleet was renamed and registered under the Maltese flag.
Irisl used a Maltese-owned company Royal-Med to serve as the agent for the private Iranian company Hafiz Darya Shipping Lines (HDS) which was created to take over all Irisl business in 2009 after it was hit by a US trading ban over its alleged role in supplying Iran's nuclear weapons programme.

Despite the sanctions, the prohibition did not prevent the execution of contracts concluded before 26 October 2010.

According to US embassy cables, Malta also accepted a firm commitment with the United States to deny requests by Iranian banks to establish a subsidiary, branch, or representative office in Malta.

Iranian bank Melli had been singled out in a United Nations Resolution as an "entity of particular concern", with finance minister Tonio Fenech informing the US ambassador that Malta would block Melli's request to use Malta's payment system, via London.

The US also urged Malta to approach law firms so that they institute "enhanced vigilance" over transactions with Irisl. In February 2009, law firm Ganado and Associates terminated all aspects of its professional relationship with Irisl.