Windward, a world leader in maritime risk analytics, announced the launch of its new compliance product to help of inadvertently facilitating evasion of UN and U.S. sanctions.
The announcement comes on the day U.S. waivers for importing Iranian oil expire, making all imports by any country problematic under U.S. sanctions. At the same time, it exposes any maritime actor who facilitates such transfers vulnerable to aggressive enforcement action by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Infographic: Safe Trading in a Sanctions World
Ami Daniel, Co-Founder and CEO of Windward, said: “Iranian oil is now radioactive. Any country, individual, energy trader, financial institution, vessel, port authority, or bunkering provider that touches it is now at risk. The critical challenge for the maritime industry now is knowing which vessels and fleets one can safely do business with.”
“Existing screening methods are no longer fit for purpose. First, because they don't detect increasingly sophisticated sanctions evasion tactics; and second, because there's too much data to sift through to make accurate and timely decisions.”
Dark STS transfer detected on Planet optical image, both vessels carrying sanctioned fuel destined for Syria
Windward Compliance is a SaaS technology platform that uses artificial intelligence to screen vessels and help recommend which ones are safe to trade with. In this way, energy traders, banks and bunkering service providers can go about their business, safe in the knowledge that they're protected from the risk of breaching U.S. sanctions.
Windward partners with organizations to help improve their understanding of maritime risk, enabling them to take better actions to manage it. The company’s unbiased, data-driven risk insights are based on deep contextual analysis of actual ship operations using advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. They’re available on-demand, helping customers make the best decisions. Clients include Frontex, the DEA and the UN Security Council, which uses Windward technology to discover vessels helping North Korea evading sanctions.
North Korean tanker changing its identity in mid-sea while transiting between China and DPRK – and then changes back while heading to China again
Source: Windward