Several Swiss companies are accused by US authorities of helping manage part of a network involved in transporting Iranian oil and conducting transactions that allegedly financed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
and its Quds Force, according to a report by Swiss broadcaster RTS.The report said Fractal Shipping SA took over management of a fleet of around 30 former oil tankers in 2022. When Western countries tightened sanctions on Russia, Fractal chief executive Mathieu Philippe created a subsidiary in Dubai.
Since July 2025, Philippe and his companies in Dubai and Geneva have been on the US sanctions list, the report noted. According to Washington, the companies are part of an Iranian oil transportation network, it added.
According to US information cited by RTS, the head of the network is Iranian oil magnate Hossein Shamkhani, the son of Ali Shamkhani, a former adviser to Iran’s supreme leader.
The US imposed new sanctions on Shamkhani’s network of companies in April.
The report also pointed to Zug-based Ocean Leonid Investments AG, founded by Hossein Shamkhani‘s business partner, Mahdiyar Zare Mojtahed. The hedge fund is currently in liquidation, the report noted.
RTS said US authorities sanctioned the company in July for allegedly investing funds originating from Hossein Shamkhani‘s oil transactions.
According to US court documents cited by RTS, $7.6 million transited from a Swiss account belonging to the Singapore-based Wellbred Group through the United States to Singapore in January, allegedly in violation of US sanctions against Iran.
The group has a Geneva subsidiary, Wellbred Trading SA.
Another line of inquiry cited in the report concerns Zurich-based investment bank MBaer, which has been officially closed since February. According to Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), the bank committed “serious systematic breaches” of anti-money laundering obligations, and an investigation remains ongoing under the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The report said the US Treasury Department alleges MBaer laundered money on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Force and thereby “financed terrorism.” FinCEN, a US Treasury financial intelligence unit, alleges the bank transferred more than $60 million in that context.
MBaer founder Mike Baer rejected the allegations, according to the report, saying there was no indication at the time of the transactions of links to Iran, sanctioned organizations, or terrorist activities, and described the FinCEN claims as unfounded.
