A recent investigation by our Association exposed the European connections of the “BF Tanker” corporation and the related structure “Inok TM”, operating a group of tankers of the “Balt Flot” type, connected with “Lukoil”, Cypriot offshore companies such as “Voje Holding Limited”, magnate Rishat Bagautdinov and oligarch Vladimir Lisin, and making criminal calls to occupied Ukrainian ports.
The conducted analysis of the work of the crews of Russian tankers and those companies that are engaged in their recruitment and at the same time shipping, indicated the close interweaving of all private beneficiaries of the Russian “shadow” fleet among themselves, as well as their systematic penetration not only into the Cypriot offshores, but also into the corridors of the maritime administrations of a number of European countries, as well as their “creative” attempts to circumvent sanctions in courts, in which the “Russian Maritime Register of Shipping” plays a special role.
Notable in the whole story with the owners of “BF Tanker” and “Inok TM” was the mention of these companies, with their IMO numbers 4206557 and 4032143, in the European Commission’s Implementing decision 2024/411 of January 30, 2024. It was not about another sanctions list, as one might logically assume, but about a list of shipping companies in the context of “maritime transport emissions within the system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading”, in implementation of the EU Directive 2003/87/EC.
As stated in Decision 2024/411, “one Member State to be responsible for each shipping company” specified in the relevant lists, and for “BF Tanker”, as it turns out, such a responsible EU state is Estonia, and for “Inok TM” – Latvia. We also found the registration of a company associated with these structures “INOK NV”, IMO number 1858497, in Antwerp, Belgium.
In this regard, we have sent the relevant notifications to all authorized international structures, maritime administrations, port control memorandums, classification and insurance structures, as well as to the divisions of the EU and democratic countries responsible for sanctions policy, and to the law enforcement agencies of the relevant countries.
At the moment, we have received confirmation of work with our materials from the European Commission, the Council of Europe bodies, as well as from the authorized bodies of Australia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Romania, Estonia, etc.
We note that now the authorities of France and Germany, who also received our information, are actively working on the application of sanctions against the “Lukoil” corporation, the close ties with which the structures of “BF Tanker”, “Inok TM”, as well as their management were indicated in our investigation.
