Strait Shipbrokers Pte. Ltd. v. Blinken

• Citation: 560 F.Supp.3d 81
• Decision Date: 12 August 2021
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 21-1946 (BAH)
• Parties: STRAIT SHIPBROKERS PTE. LTD., et al., Plaintiffs, v. Antony BLINKEN, in his official capacity as Secretary of State, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

560 F.Supp.3d 81

STRAIT SHIPBROKERS PTE. LTD., et al., Plaintiffs,

v.Antony BLINKEN, in his official capacity as Secretary of State, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 21-1946 (BAH)

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

Signed August 12, 2021

Christopher D. Man, Winston & Strawn LLP, Washington, DC, for Plaintiffs.

Stephen McCoy Elliott, Kristin Alyssa Taylor, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

BERYL A. HOWELL, Chief Judge

In October 2020, the Secretary of State sanctioned plaintiffs Strait Shipbrokers Pte. Ltd. and the company's Managing Director, Murtuza Mustafa Munir Basrai, for prohibited commercial transactions involving the shipment of petroleum products from Iran. The U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control ("OFAC") then placed plaintiffs on the Specially Designated Nationals ("SDN") list. As a result, United States persons are prohibited from engaging in transactions with plaintiffs, plaintiffs’ property and interests within the United States or in the control of U.S. persons are blocked, and plaintiff Basrai may not enter the United States. With their request for reconsideration of the sanctions still pending before the State Department and the administrative record in the process of declassification and appropriate redaction for disclosure, plaintiffs filed this extraordinary motion for a preliminary injunction.

Plaintiffs were informed that they were being designated for "knowingly engag[ing] in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum products from Iran," see Executive Order 13,846 ("E.O. 13,846") § 3(a)(ii), 83 Fed. Reg. 38,939, 38,941 (Aug. 6, 2018), and subsequently provided with details regarding the specific transactions or shipments underlying the designations. In plaintiffs’ view, defendants’ disclosures have fallen short of providing plaintiffs with either the factual basis for their designation or a "reasoned explanation" for the government's decision-making. Given that the administrative record is largely classified—unsurprising given that the designation was made under an executive order aimed at the threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran and is predicated on national security concerns—plaintiffs demand that the government nonetheless disclose the classified record to plaintiffs or, in the context of this pending motion for preliminary injunctive relief, to the Court.

Put another way, plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction aims to oblige the Court, on a highly expeditated basis, to check the classified work of the State Department and the intelligence agencies on which it relies based on plaintiffs’ hypothesis that the classified record does not support the government's clear factual assertions. Plaintiffs fail to meet the requirements for the extraordinary remedy of a preliminary injunction and their motion is, accordingly, denied.

I. BACKGROUND

Provided below is an overview of the statutory background of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act ("IEEPA"), 50 U.S.C. §§ 1701 – 08, the relevant executive orders prohibiting transactions with Iran and providing sanctions for those who deal with Iran, and the factual and procedural background of this case.

A. International Emergency Economic Powers Act

The United States has long used economic sanctions to prohibit transactions that threaten national security. IEEPA grants the President authority "to deal with any unusual and extraordinary [foreign] threat" to U.S. "national security" so long as "the President declares a national emergency with respect to such threat." 50 U.S.C. § 1701(a). The statute authorizes the President to take a range of actions to combat such a threat after declaring a national emergency, including permitting the President to:

[R]egulate, direct and compel, nullify, void, prevent or prohibit, any ... transfer ... of, or dealing in, ... or transactions involving, any property in which any foreign country or a national thereof has any interest ... with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States[.]

Id. § 1702(a)(1)(B). The President may also "empower the head of any" executive department or agency to take those actions on his behalf. 3 U.S.C. § 301.

B. Executive Order Regarding Sanctions Imposed on Iran

IEEPA has been invoked to impose sanctions against Iran, including sanctions aimed at cutting off the market for its petroleum products. See Executive Order 12,957, 60 Fed. Reg. 14615 (Mar. 15, 1995). In January 2016, some sanctions imposed against Iran were briefly lifted, Executive Order 13,716, 81 Fed. Reg. 3693 (Jan. 16, 2016), but, on August 6, 2018, sanctions were reimposed in Executive Order 13,846. The sanctions imposed in the latter order are currently in effect and are applicable to this dispute.

Executive Order 13,846 provides sanctions to put "financial pressure on the Iranian regime" to oppose "Iran's proliferation and development of missiles and other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities, its network and campaign of regional aggression, its support for terrorist groups, and the malign activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its surrogates[.]" E.O. 13,846, preamble. The Secretary of State, in consultation with the heads of other agencies, is authorized to impose sanctions on any person determined to have "knowingly engaged in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran" on or after November 5, 2018 Id. § 3(a)(ii). Once the determination has been made, the Executive Order provides a "menu-based" list of sanctions for designated entities or individuals. Id. §§ 4, 5. The sanctions may include prohibiting certain transactions with or involving the interests of the sanctioned person, as well as blocking transactions involving the property and interests of the sanctioned person. Id. § 5(a)(i)–(vi). Similar sanctions may be imposed by the Secretary of State on principle executive officers of sanctioned entities or other persons "performing similar functions and with similar authorities." Id. § 5(a)(vii). Any individual determined to be "a corporate officer or principal of, or a shareholder with a controlling interest in, a sanctioned person" shall be excluded from the United States. Id. § 4(e). Persons subject to sanctions pursuant to the Executive Order are added by OFAC to the SDN list of individuals whose assets are blocked and with whom United States persons are generally prohibited from dealing. See Compl., Ex. 1 ("Oct. 29, 2020 Notice of Addition to SDN List,") at 2, 5–6, ECF 1-1; Fares v. Smith , 901 F.3d 315, 318 (D.C. Cir. 2018) (citing 31 C.F.R. § 501.807(a) ; Zevallos v. Obama , 793 F.3d 106, 110 (D.C. Cir. 2015) ).

C. Factual Background

Plaintiff Strait Shipbrokers is a maritime shipbroker based in Singapore that acts as an intermediary between ship owners and cargo owners, and negotiates "freight and demurrage," Compl. ¶ 22; Declaration of Murtuza Mustafa Munir Basrai ("Basrai Decl.") ¶¶ 1, 3, ECF No. 8, "offering varied services in ship brokering of bulk petrochemicals, Veg oil, LPG, LNG, clean petroleum and crude oil," Basrai Decl. ¶ 3. Plaintiff Basrai is the founder and serves as the "managing director" of Strait Shipbrokers, Basrai Decl. ¶¶ 1, 3, and is an Indian national residing in Singapore, id. ¶ 20. In brokering cargo agreements, plaintiffs concede that they "do[ ] not inquire about the cargo country of origin," Basrai Decl. ¶ 5, nor do they "require specific port details where ports are relatively close together," id. ¶ 6, apparently leaving themselves blind to whether shipments barred under U.S. sanctions are involved in plaintiffs’ deals. Plaintiffs state matter-of-factly that they "often lack visibility" of the details of the contracts underlying the deals they are brokering, id. ¶ 5, a surprising concession given that they are in the business of brokering shipment of "bulk petrochemicals, ..., clean petroleum and crude oil," id. ¶ 3, and are involved in shipping in "Middle East Ports," id. ¶ 6.

On October 29, 2020, OFAC issued a public notice that plaintiffs were designated on the SDN list. Oct. 29, 2020 Notice of Addition to SDN List at 2, 5–6. This public notice was followed the next day by the Secretary of State's release of a press statement regarding the determination, pursuant to section 3(a)(ii) of the Executive Order, that plaintiff Strait Shipbrokers "knowingly engaged in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum products from Iran." Defs.’ Opp'n to Pls.’ Mot. for Preliminary Injunction and Expedited Discovery ("Defs.’ Opp'n"), Ex. A ("Oct. 30, 2020 Press Release"), ECF No. 16-1. The press release further stated that plaintiff Basrai was sanctioned for being "principal executive offer of [Strait Shipbrokers], or performing similar functions and with similar authorities as a principle executive officer, for purposes of Section 5(a)(vii) of E.O. 13846." Id.

Notice of these sanctions was published, on January 6, 2021, in the Federal Register with additional description of the range of "menu-based" sanctions imposed on plaintiffs. 86 Fed. Reg. 672, 672–73 (Jan. 6, 2021). Specifically, the Secretary imposed various sanctions on plaintiff Strait Shipbrokers, including prohibiting transactions with Straight Shipbrokers subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and blocking the company's property interests. Id. at 673. Comparable sanctions were imposed on plaintiff Basrai based on his executive role at Strait Shipbrokers, and he was also subject to visa denial and exclusion pursuant to section 4(e) of Executive Order 13,846. Id.

As a result of its designation, plaintiff Strait Shipbrokers has had its Citibank bank account cancelled, its group insurance policy cancelled, and has limited ability to engage in business with United...