Iranian oil shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, a central figure in alleged Iranian and Russian shadow fleet operations, has a Comoros-flagged vessel named Arista stranded in the Hormuz strait. The ship, initially reported as having run aground on a US-suggested route, was identified by maritime monitoring service TankerTrackers.com as being stuck since March and part of Shamkhani's operations. Sanctioned by the West due to his role in oil smuggling, Shamkhani is the son of Ali Shamkhani, a senior political adviser to Iran's former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Sarajevo-based Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) reported in March that Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani and his brother amassed a $29 million property portfolio in Dubai using aliases and Caribbean "golden passports". The US Treasury alleges that the Arista, as part of Shamkhani's network, uses front companies to buy Iranian and Russian oil, falsifies shipping documents, switches oil between vessels frequently, and launders money. The European Commission describes Shamkhani as a central player in Russia’s so-called ‘shadow fleet’, while the UK government announced sanctions against him last August, freezing assets, disqualifying directors, and banning travel. Despite these allegations, Shamkhani has not publicly responded.