US Seizes Tanker Linked To 'DNR' Oil Tycoon Near Venezuela

The ship was one of the largest in the world when it was commissioned.

The US has seized the tanker The Skipper (formerly Adisa) off the coast of Venezuela, CBS News reported, citing three sources familiar with the operation. According to the sources, the operation began Wednesday morning, shortly after the tanker left a Venezuelan port. The operation involved the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, helicopters, special operations forces, U.S. Coast Guard and Marines. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi released a video of armed personnel rappelling to the ship's deck by rope from a helicopter. She said the U.S. executed the arrest warrant because the tanker was "used to transport sub-sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran." According to Venezuelan oil company PDVSA, the ship was transporting oil to Asia from 2021 to 2022.

The actions have led to a sharp escalation of tensions between Washington and Caracas. Caracas responded by calling the seizure of the ship a "shameless robbery and an act of international piracy" and promised to appeal to international authorities. Asked about the future fate of the oil, US President Donald Trump said: "We're going to keep it."

According to the US Treasury Department, The Skipper was placed on sanctions lists back in 2022 for its involvement in a major oil supply network that helped fund Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah. According to OFAC, participants in the scheme blended Iranian oil with crude of other origins at the port of Sharjah, UAE, and then sold it under false documents. The scheme involved 17 companies and 11 tankers. The US Treasury Department indicated that Adisa was part of a group of vessels controlled by oil tycoon Viktor Artemov. He is Ukrainian and was born in Donetsk, according to the Ukrainian publication Espreso. According to Washington, firms linked to him may have been involved in the transportation of raw materials from Venezuela and Russia, as well as fuel supplies to the Russian-controlled "DNR." Bloomberg recorded the participation of Artemov's fleet in the transshipment of Russian oil on the high seas to conceal its origin.

The seized tanker is operated by Thomarose Global Ventures, a company registered in Nigeria, and is owned by a structure linked to Artemov. The 333-meter-long vessel, built in 2005 as The Toyo, was one of the largest tankers in the world when it was commissioned. UANI, an organization monitoring the circumvention of the sanctions regime, claims that some of the vessels linked to Artemov carried Venezuelan oil, including the tanker Adisa.

Ukrainian publication Espreso called Artemov one of the pioneers of Ukrainian fuel retailing: from 1998 to 2006, he headed the Alfa Oil chain of gas stations with 300 filling stations. He then moved to Switzerland, where he established Ava Petroleum Services together with German citizen Vitaly Weinstein and Swiss citizen Gregorio Fazzone. Weinstein was previously part of a group of aides to Ukrainian MP Alexander Granovsky, who was arrested in absentia by Ukraine's Supreme Anti-Corruption Court on suspicion of organizing corruption schemes.

In 2019, the SBU opened criminal proceedings in which Artemov's company was listed as a structure potentially involved in the illegal supply of fuel to the "Defense Ministry of the DNR." The court pointed out that the activity could have been conducted through Alfa Energy, Ukrainian Fuel Company Dnipro and Ava Petroleum Services.

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