Thread by @ckoettl

A mysterious tanker. Oil transfers at sea. A retired sailor & a multinational oil trader. What do these four things have in common? They are part of the same convoluted web that helps explain one way #NorthKorea evades sanctions. w/ @RUSI_org & @C4ADS nyti.ms/3vNlYdM

For our newest Visual Investigation, we spent months reviewing ship tracking data and corporate records, satellite imagery and interviewing some of the key players to find out how #NorthKorea sidesteps strict international sanctions.

We focused on a ship called the Diamond 8, the largest foreign oil tanker delivering oil to North Korea. The U.N. Panel of Experts publicly identified the ship in April 2020, and has detailed three trips to North Korea. I found a fourth one. 🛰️📷@maxar nyti.ms/3vNlYdM

Under U.N. sanctions, #NorthKorea is allowed to import 500K barrels of refined petroleum products / year. That cap has been breached again in 2020 according to @RUSI_org & @C4ADS. The Diamond 8 (if full) could breach the cap with approx. 8 deliveries.

https://twitter.com/C4ADS/status/1373959727797899265

We uncovered a web of companies & individuals surrounding the Diamond 8. The trail often ended in offshore secrecy jurisdictions. But we discovered that the Diamond 8 & the ships that gave it oil are connected to Winson Shipping, the Taiwan operation of oil trader Winson Group.

After the Diamond 8 had been publicly outed by the U.N. for delivering oil to North Korea, a ship (called Superstar at the time) likely transferred oil to it at least 3 times. The Superstar is owned by Winson Shipping, a company representative confirmed. 🛰️📷 @planetlabs

Another ship that transferred oil to the Diamond 8 was the Panama-flagged Ever Grandeur, a ship connected to a company called “Glory Sparkling”. We found overlap between Winson Shipping Taiwan and Glory Sparkling.

Officials from Panama @panama_un, where the Ever Grandeur is registered, told me their records show Zuo Fasheng is listed as the operator of the ship. Zuo Fasheng is a Winson Shipping manager, visible here to the right of Winson Group founder Tony Tung.

Asked about the Ever Grandeur and a ship-to-ship transfer with the Diamond 8, Panamanian authorities also told me they had initiated a procedure due to the Ever Grandeur’s “possible participation in activities not allowed”. And that the U.N. had requested information from them.

The Diamond 8 was previously owned by Winson Shipping, when it was called Angel 22. It was still listed as part of their fleet on Winson Group’s website (see archived screenshot) until we contacted them at the end of 2020 (photo of the ship is still up) bit.ly/3rahtX1

On paper, the registered owner of the Diamond 8 is a retired sailor in Indonesia who previously worked on oil tankers, incl. the Fu Wing/Cahaya Maru. He denied buying the Diamond 8 for $1.4m. To find out how he fits in, watch the full video. nyti.ms/3vNlYdM

In a statement to The Times, the Winson Group's executive director, Crystal Tung, said
“...the allegations against Winson Group are unfounded and false. Winson Group did not take any actions in violation of applicable sanctions against North Korea or any sanctioned countries.”

What’s the Diamond 8 up to now? Faking it. Here it is in China in a @Planetlabs satellite image on Feb. 6, using a false ship name. Researchers from @RUSIsandstone earlier discovered that it’s transmitting as the Turkish ship Pasha4.

The real Pasha4 is a new ship & I tracked it to its shipyard in Turkey in July 2020. Thanks to @MarineTraffic, we see how its signal jumps between Chinese & Turkish waters. Distance between these coordinates is around 5,000 miles. 🛰️📷 @maxar

To learn more about this story, check out our two articles accompanying this visual investigation. via @_stella_cooper @muyixiao
nytimes.com/2021/03/22/ins…
nytimes.com/2021/03/22/wor…

Do you have additional information, documents or tips related to this investigation? Please reach out! nytimes.com/tips

Special thanks to @maxar for providing a lot of satellite images for this & a related story (coming very soon…). The pics here are the Diamond 8 in 2017 and 2020. And to @MarineTraffic @VesselsValue @WindwardOceans @inesnastali @IHSMarkitMandT for providing data or analysis

And a shout out to Joe Byrne from @RUSIsandstone for that amazing find of the ship-to-ship transfer under a very cloudy sky. 🛰️📷@planetlabs

The detailed @RUSI_org & @C4ADS report can be found here c4ads.org/black-gold

This Visual Investigation was brought to you by a global team of @nytimes reporters, video editors, motion designers & editors @muyixiao @_stella_cooper @NatalieReneau Aaron Byrd @whitney_hurst @markscheffler @paulmozur @amy_changchien @hkbeech @bonimygi