Tea Party: The Network of British Dual Nationals Exploiting Their Passports for Iranian Sanction Evasion

WikIran identified a network of British nationals facilitating Iranian Shadow Banking operations in the UAE, exploiting their citizenship to help Iran evade international sanctions and broker illicit oil deals.

In our previous articles, we revealed prominent elements of the Iranian Shadow Banking Mechanism in the UAE – utilized by the regime to defy international sanctions and establish trade relationships with the legitimate international financial system. As demonstrated in the HMS Trading database, this mechanism relies heavily on networks of front companies and those who manage them. Typically, generic front companies are operated by a single money mule manager who also serves as sole shareholder. Such mules are recruited deliberately for their foreign nationality, which enables them to register companies and transfer funds without raising suspicion of Iranian connection.

Not My Cup of Tea

The UK designates Iran as a “significate security concern”. However, while analyzing the recent dataset, WikIran encountered a network of British nationals who exploited their foreign citizenship to establish front companies and broker oil export deals with HMS and PDECO. Crucially, none of these individuals were born in UK; rather, they utilize their dual nationality to as a tool for sanction bypassing, taking advantage of the citizenship granted to them by the British Authorities.

The following email was sent by PDECO to British-ran front companies’ managers, requesting information regarding two entities: their own UAE-based company and an Iranian counterpart – in order to facilitate payments for sanctioned oil deals. The information requested includes contracts, registration and financial statements, shipment details and the requested credit line or bank guarantee.

Below Is a breakdown – based on the HMS and PDECO materials – of this network, which consists of numerous British individuals serving as front companies’ mule-managers and small-scale oil brokers.

Atef Kaabi

Atef Kaabi, born in Iran in 1987, is the manager of a British-run sanction evasion network in the UAE. He is the manager and sole shareholder of Oiltrax FZE and Oilyx Trading DMCC. Atef holds a British passport (No. 141168618) as well as a UAE residency card (No. 784-1987-6435920-8).

The letter bellow was sent by Atef Kaabi directly to Bank Shahr’s CEO. In it, Kaabi presents himself as the manager of a group of “well based” oil trading companies, seeking assistance in financing and exporting Iranian oil products through Shahr’s Rahbar system in the Emirates – HMS and PDECO. This group’s primary trading front is Oiltrax FZE, and it includes many other companies such as Gulf Stream FZE. The group works with Kohazad Saze Ahvaz as a guarantor company on the Iranian side.

According to the bank statements found within the materials, Oiltrax’s bank accounts (listed below) transfer tens of millions of dirhams annually. As mentioned, the correspondent Iranian export company working with Atef’s Oiltrax is Kohazad Saze Ahvaz, which is owned by a family member of Atef – Sami Kaabi Nia, who is also recognized as an official representative for Atef’s companies. The Iranian company employs additional suspected Kaabi family members, such as Amin Kaabi.

Jan Mohammad Safie

Jan Mohammad Safie, born in Afghanistan in 1966, holds a UK passport (No. 542450733) and a UAE residency card (No. 784-1966-9066824-7). Safie served as the managing director and sole shareholder of UAE-based Universal Oceans 7 DMCC.

Universal Oceans was exposed on WikIran in 2024 as a front company facilitating oil exports for MODAFL. New documents reveal that due to its exposure, Universal Oceans ceased its operations in 2025 and transferred all commercial activity to none other than Atef Kaabi’s Oiltrax FZE. Safie even noted that Oiltrax is established by the same team that managed his own front company – Atef Kaabi’s group.

Mohamed Bader Nasser Al Timimi

Mohamed Bader Nasser Al Tamimi holds a British passport (No. 130219589) and a UAE residency card (No. 784-1978-9580993-3). Nasser runs the front Sky Trading FZE.

As seen in the following documents, Sky Trading FZE has engaged with HMS Trading to facilitate oil illicit oil deals. The documents detail payments for an oil contract in the form of cheques issued by Sky Trading and endorsed by Savin Taab’s (Sky Trading trading partner in Iran) representative, Qasem Najafi (Iranian passport No. F55396757). The cheques, drawn against Sky Trading’s bank account in Mashreq bank UAE, total approximately 90 million dirhams.

Naser Hamadi

Naser Hamadi, born in Iran in 1966, holds a UK passport (No. 133896316) and UAE residency card (No. 784-1966-9504368-5) is the manager and sole shareholder of UAE-based front Gulf Stream FZE. As shown in the documents presented earlier in this article, Gulf Stream FZE is a part of Kaabi’s network.

Attached to an email sent by Hamadi to PDECO, we find the following document which states that yet another front that was part of this network – KB Petroleum Products FZE – was merged into Oiltrax. KB Petroleum was shut down due to its exposure, in a similar manner to Universal Oceans.

The following table documents the network’s bank accounts we managed to identify.

The British nationals mentioned above created an organized sanction-busting network that provides a crucial financial lifeline to the Iranian regime. We call upon the relevant authorities to act against the individuals named in this article, and upon global financial institutions to exercise heightened KYC and due diligence processes regarding every transaction, company, or suspicious individual they engage with.

WikIran will continue to expose every facilitator of the regime’s wrongdoings. Don’t join this tea party.