Iran demands Israel’s richest man pay $170m fine after it seized cargo ship linked to him

Iran has demanded a $170 million fine from what it says is the Israeli owner of a cargo ship that it seized in Gulf waters last year and accused of having ties to Israel, a judicial official in Tehran said Tuesday.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military force that supports terror groups in the Middle East and answers directly to Iran’s supreme leader, intercepted the MSC Aries in April 2024 and detained its 25 international crew members.

At the time, the official IRNA news agency asserted that the Portuguese-flagged vessel was “managed by Zodiac, which belongs to the Zionist capitalist Eyal Ofer.” Geneva-based MSC manages and operates the Aries, which it leases on a long-term basis from title-holder Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, Zodiac said in a statement. Zodiac is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.

Ofer, 75, was ranked by Forbes earlier this year as the wealthiest Israeli, with a fortune of $28.2 billion. According to the publication, he is active in a variety of industries, including shipping.

On Tuesday, Iranian judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said charges had been filed and the case was before the courts, though no date had been set for a trial.

“A fine of $170 million has been demanded against its owner, of Israeli origin, accused of financing terrorism,” Jahangir said.

The MSC Aries had been last located off Dubai heading toward the Strait of Hormuz when it was seized. The ship had turned off its tracking data, a common practice for Israeli-affiliated ships moving through the region.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations described the vessel as being “seized by regional authorities” in the Gulf of Oman off the Emirati port city of Fujairah. In footage of the incident, commandos rappelled down onto a stack of containers sitting on the deck of the vessel.

Jahangir said the seized ship, excluding its cargo, was valued at $170 million and claimed that Ofer was an “influential figure” within the Israeli government.

Ships tied to the business magnate have been attacked by Iran in the past: In February 2023, an oil tanker at least partially owned by Ofer was targeted by an Iranian suicide drone, and in August 2021, a different oil tanker operated by his company was hit by Iran, killing two crewmen.

The United States denounced the 2024 seizure of the ship as an act of piracy and called for its crew to be released.

Israel’s foreign minister at the time called on the European Union to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization in response, denouncing Iran as a “criminal regime that supports Hamas’s crimes and is now conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law.”

At least some of the ship’s crew were later freed.

Hours after the ship’s seizure, Iran carried out its first-ever direct attack on Israel, launching hundreds of drones and missiles, the vast majority of which were intercepted by Israeli and allied air defenses.

Two weeks earlier, Israel carried out a strike on an Iranian consular building in Damascus, killing seven IRGC members, including two generals.

Reuters contributed to this report.